Asdrubal Cabrera, 2B

The Setup:

In the top of the fifth of a scoreless game in Cleveland, Kevin Mench and Marco Scutaro began the inning with back to back singles for Toronto against the Indian pitcher, Cliff Lee. With runners on first and second, Lyle Overbay came to the plate.

The Play:

With the count 1-0, Cleveland starts the runners and Lyle Overbay hits a line drive to the right of second base. Asdrubal Cabrera makes a diving catch to his right just above the ground. He gets up and walks three steps to tag second to retire Kevin Mench, and then he tags Marco Scutaro for the third out.

The Rest of the Story:

Marco Scutaro had already stepped past second base by the time he stopped his momentum and was tagged out. This is the only time that the runner from first has been tagged out on the third base side of the bag in an unassisted triple play.

This was the second game of a double header. The Blue Jays were shut out in the first game and had yet to score in the second. (They did end up scoring three runs in the top of the tenth inning to win the second game 3-0.) This led to a comment at the end of the play by the Cleveland TV announcer, who I believe was Matt Underwood. “The Blue Jays, desperate for some offense, just ran themselves into oblivion!”

Other players have been known to toss the unassisted triple play ball to an umpire or back to the mound, but Cabrera is the only one documented to have thrown the ball into the stands while running off the field. Later, when asked if he wished he’d kept the ball, he said, “Oh, yeah, absolutely.”

One month after turning his unassisted triple play, Cabrera was optioned to Buffalo of the International League where he played 35 games before returning to Cleveland.

Ron Hansen, who turned an unassisted triple play in 1968, was in attendance at the game as an advance scout for Philadelphia.