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Unassisted triple play


In baseball, an unassisted triple play occurs when a defensive player makes all three putouts by himself in one continuous play, without his teammates making any assists. Neal Ball was the first to achieve this in Major League Baseball (MLB) under modern rules, doing so on July 19, 1909. For this rare play to be possible there must be no outs in the inning and at least two runners on base. An unassisted triple play usually consists of a hard line drive hit directly at an infielder for the first out, with that same fielder then able to double off one of the base runners and tag a second for the second and third outs.

In MLB, a total of fifteen players have fielded an unassisted triple play, making this feat rarer than a perfect game. Of these fifteen players, eight were shortstops, five were second basemen and two were first basemen. The Cleveland Indians are the only franchise to have three players achieve the feat while on their roster: Ball, Bill Wambsganss and Asdrúbal Cabrera. The shortest time between two unassisted triple plays occurred in May 1927, when Johnny Neun executed the feat less than 24 hours after Jimmy Cooney. Conversely, it took more than 41 seasons after Neun's play before Ron Hansen performed the feat on July 30, 1968, marking the longest span between unassisted triple plays. The last player to make an unassisted triple play is Eric Bruntlett, accomplishing the feat on August 23, 2009. Only Neun and Bruntlett executed unassisted triple plays that ended the game.

Most unassisted triple plays in MLB have taken this form: an infielder catches a line drive (one out), steps on a base to double off a runner (two outs), and then tags another runner on the runner's way to the next base (three outs). The "next base" usually being the same base that the infielder stepped on to record the second out. Infrequently, the order of the last two putouts is reversed.


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