In the top of the fifth in the second game of a doubleheader in Cleveland, Toronto's Lyle Overbay lined into an unassisted triple play. Indians second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera pulled it off.
Troy Tulowitzki had the last unassisted triple play, last year on April 29.
Cabrera is the third Cleveland player to pull off an unassisted triple play. Neal Ball, a shortstop, had one on July 19, 1909 and Bill Wambsganss had one on October 10, 1920 in Game 5 of the World Series.
Cabrera's UTP was the 13th in regular season play.
Despite its rarity, the UTP is one of the least spectacular plays in baseball. It takes a couple of seconds, there's no anticipation. The guy catches a line drive, steps on the base and tags a guy out. The fielder never makes a diving catch. It's just hit right at him.
That's a rare event, but a CI isn't as rare a play as a UTP. I guess there's probably some double play combinations that are even more rare than a UTP.
Last year, I saw David Wells double for the Dodgers. Then he was thrown out at third on a ground ball to second, 4-5. And he was out by a mile.
Later in the game, Wells was at first after a single and Matt Kemp was on third. Rafael Furcal tried a safety squeeze and Kemp was safe, but Wells was forced at second by the third baseman, 5-6.
Milton Bradley was the last NL player to get hit from both sides of the plate and that was back in 2005 when he was on the Dodgers and playing against Arizona. Casey Fossum and Mike Koplove doing the honors.
For what it's worth, here's a list of all 250 games in which a switch-hitting pitcher has collected at least two hits. All your culprits will be found therein. (At least all the ones since 1956.)
6 Watching that highlight, I've got to say --there's nothing more annoying than a color guy calmly saying "triple play, triple play" before the lead announcer can even describe what is happening. Talk about a kill-joy.
I once saw on TV an MLB CF pass up a UTP opportunity. I don't remember who it was or what teams, but with the runners going from first and second, the batter hit a sinking liner toward a shallow playing CF who made a shoestring catch and could easily have continued in to tag 2B and then the runner from first, but as he recovered from the catch he underhanded to one of the middle infielders who recorded the last two putouts.
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.
I will go out on a limb and say no.
Retrosheet has a set of all no-hitters and all cycle games, but not UTP games to look it up.
I could, but I'm lazy. :-p
And bunt doubles. Those are also pretty rare.
http://tinyurl.com/2xvy3q
Page 153
http://tinyurl.com/5qrrul
Later in the game, Wells was at first after a single and Matt Kemp was on third. Rafael Furcal tried a safety squeeze and Kemp was safe, but Wells was forced at second by the third baseman, 5-6.
The last player to get by a pitch from both sides of the plate was Jorge Posada.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200604030.shtml
Barry Zito and Kirk Saarloos did the damage.
By rule, that's an automatic triple.
Oh, that makes a difference.
Zambrano already had a game earlier this season with a hit from both sides of the plate. Back on April 16.
http://tinyurl.com/42dol8
http://tinyurl.com/3zkbum
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/USzD
we all have our fetishes :-)
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.