Royals’ Triple-A affiliate turned a triple play after opposing player became confused
The video shared on Twitter by the Omaha Storm Chasers, who are the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate, came with a simple description: A crazy triple play.
Here’s the thing: Eagle-eye viewers could count just two outs on the play, but it indeed ended up being a triple play.
Confused? You’re hardly alone.
Let’s set the stage from the fifth inning of Saturday’s game in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre had the bases loaded with no outs when Omaha shortstop Angelo Castellano fielded a hard-hit grounder and flipped to second to get a force out. Second baseman Samad Taylor’s throw to first was too late, but first baseman CJ Alexander threw to third baseman Nick Loftin, who tagged the runner coming from second base.
“I don’t know if anyone realizes is this a triple play or not?” a broadcaster said.
No one could figure out how the Storm Chasers managed to turn this unique triple play. Can you see how it was done?
The third out came at the very end of the video. The batter, Ben Rortvedt, was safe at first. But he became confused as to what was happening because the Storm Chasers thought they’d turned three.
This is from Conor Foley’s story for the Times-Tribune in Scranton: “Omaha’s players started to walk off the field thinking the inning was over, which led to Rortvedt walking off, too. Once everyone realized there were only two outs, Rortvedt was tagged for the third out on the play.”
Oops.
Here is the play-by-play from MiLB.com, which shows the play went 6-4-3-5-3. But Rortvedt was nowhere near second base, so even this description is confusing.
This story was originally published May 15, 2023 at 8:57 AM.
