White Sox Baserunners Blunder Their Way into the Stupidest Triple Play in MLB History
The Chicago White Sox tried to celebrate the Fourth of July by declaring their independence from the rules of baseball, but they found out the hard way the rules still apply to them.
Chicago had just drawn even with the Minnesota Twins 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh and were looking to take the lead with men on first and second and no outs. A.J. Pollack flied out to deep right-center, which meant the White Sox would have the potential go-ahead run on third after Adam Engel tagged from second base to advance to third.
But it didn’t happen. Instead, what happened were two boneheaded base-running blunders on the same play working in tandem to create the perfect storm for the stupidest triple play in Major League Baseball history.
Here is the dumbest triple play in MLB history.
White Sox had 1st and 2nd with nobody out in the 7th tied 2-2. Abreu flied to center, but Engel and Moncada advanced without tagging up for some reason.
Urshela tags out Moncada, steps on 2nd to get Engel for an 8-5 triple play. pic.twitter.com/b60ryURHFT
— Michael Luciano 🇺🇦 (@michaelsluciano) July 5, 2022
(In the tweet, I misidentified Pollack as Jose Abreu. Still not as bad as running into a triple play like this!)
As Twins centerfielder Byron Buxton was tracking down Pollack’s fly ball, for some reason Engel positioned himself several steps off second base instead of keeping a foot on the bag in order to tag up once Buxton caught the ball. When Buxton did, Engel broke for third without ever returning to the base after he caught it.
Engel’s mistake wasn’t immediately clear on the White Sox broadcast, which simply showed Buxton making the catch and then Engel reaching third base. What viewers did see was Yoan Moncada – the runner on first – get caught up between second and third after the ball made its way back to the infield.
“What’s Moncada doing?” asked White Sox play-by-play man Jason Benetti.
To viewers at home, it had looked like Moncada perhaps thought Engel was about to pull off the rare feat of tagging up from second and make it all the way to home. But Engel had no such intention.
Anyway, that speculation is moot because it turns out Moncada also didn’t tag up. Like Engel, he bolted from his base before Buxton’s catch.
The result?
After catching the ball, Buxton threw the ball to third baseman Gio Urshela, who tagged Moncada for the second out and stepped on second for the third out because Engel failed to tag up from the base.
White Sox manager Tony La Russa, who has managed in more than 5,300 games, reacted by nearly allowing his jaw to hit the dugout floor.
Tony La Russa’s reaction to that triple play pic.twitter.com/ix0eq9qw70
— Jason Hirsch (@JasonHirsch16) July 5, 2022
The White Sox lost the game 6-3 in 10 innings.
Watch above via NBC Sports Chicago.
