Indians 2nd Baseman Cabrera Turns Unasssisted Triple Play
May 13th, 2008
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The Cleveland Indians and the Toronto Blue Jays split a doublehheader by identical (here and here) 3-0 scores in two classic pitching duels, the latter game ending in ten innings.
But that’s not the major news.
In the fifth inning of the second game, after the first two Blue Jays singled, 1st baseman Lyle Overbay lined out to 2nd baseman Asdrubal Cabrera, whereupon Cabrera turned an unassisted triple play.
Readers might recall that about 1 1/2 years ago, this blog posted about a famous unassisted triple play turned in 1992 by then Phillies 2nd baseman Mickey Morandini in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. But Morandini’s triple play ball somehow went MIA after he tossed it to the mound. The story goes that a Phiilies hitter fouled it off and it was never seen again. Morandini’s was one of 12 unassisted triple plays in MLB history prior to the 2007 season.
But regretfully, the 13th, turned last season by Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki on April 29, 2007, against Atlanta went unnoticed by this blog. The 13 unassisted triple plays recorded, prior to Monday’s by Cabrera, are listed by Baseball Almanac under fabulous feats. Tulowitzki went on to top MVP shortstop Jimmy Rollins for best fielding percentage in the NL in 2007 and secured a lucrative multi-year deal from the Rockies prior to this season. Unfortunately, after a slow start in 2008, Tulowitzki is on the DL with a torn tendon of the left quad.
Both games of the Toronto/Cleveland doubleheader were tightly contested pitching duels.
The AP report for Yahoo sports describes the fifth inning with Toronto at bat;
The nightcap featured terrific pitching by Toronto’s Shaun Marcum and Cleveland’s Cliff Lee, who got a big assist from Cabrera in the fifth inning.
With Kevin Mench and Marco Scutaro on with singles and running on the 1-0 pitch, Cabrera made a diving backhand catch of a line drive by Lyle Overbay, touched second base to force Mench and then tagged out Scutaro.
The only miscue by the 22-year-old Cabrera was that he didn’t keep the ball.
“He flipped it into the stands and right as he did cried out, ‘Oh, no!’ ” first-base coach Luis Rivera said, serving as the Venezuelan’s interpreter.
“I knew it was pretty special,” Cabrera said.
So just as with the case with Morandini’s triple play, this ball as well may be lost for posterity, that is unless it turns up validated and with a price on it.





