The triple play is one of the rarest occurrences in baseball, but the Colorado Rockies somehow managed to make it even more unique on Sunday.
With runners on first and second and no outs in the top of the third inning, San Diego Padres left fielder Carlos Quentin hit a ground ball to third baseman Nolan Arenado. Arenado stepped on third base and threw to second baseman DJ LeMahieu, who tapped the bag and fired to first. Quentin beat out LeMahieu’s throw, however, and the triple play attempt seemed to have failed.
That’s when second base umpire Seth Buckminster intervened. When Padres baserunner Seth Smith attempted a takeout slide into second base, Buckminster deemed the play interference, meaning that Quentin was out at first and the triple play was completed.
Check out the wild play below.
[mlbvideo id=”32977661″ width=”640″ height=”360″ /]
According to the Society for American Baseball Research, Sunday’s triple play was only the third in major league history to involve an interference call. There have been 693 triple plays in MLB history.
Everything seems to be going right these days for the Rockies, who won the game 8-6 on a walk-off two-run home run from Justin Morneau.
Colorado leads MLB with 249 runs scored this season and sits in second place in the National League West with a 25-20 record.
