Rangers turned a triple play that hadn’t been done in the majors since 1912

Even the Rangers players weren’t sure they’d just turned a triple play during Thursday’s 8-6 win over the Angels.

It took a few seconds before the players realized they had gotten all three outs on one play.

In the fourth inning, the Angles had the bases loaded when David Fletcher hit a sharp grounder to third. Texas’ Jurickson Profar snared the ball and stepped on third for a force out. Taylor Ward stumbled off third base and Profar tagged him out before throwing to second baseman Rougned Odor, who tagged out Kole Calhoun.

That’s a 5-4 triple play with the third baseman recording the first two outs. According to SABR’s excellent triple-play database, the last time that happened in a game was Aug. 17, 1950* when the St. Louis Browns** turned three against the Cleveland Indians.

*Yep, 68 years ago Friday **Now the Baltimore Orioles

Before that, the last time there was a triple play of this nature was 1927.

That’s not all. Stats by Stats noted that this was the first big-league triple play without the batter being retired since June 3, 1912, when the Dodgers did it against the Reds. The Dodgers, of course, were in Brooklyn at that time.

Here is the triple play:

This story was originally published August 17, 2018 at 9:35 AM.