Royals Minor League team can't stop turning triple plays
Royals MiLB team can't stop turning triple plays
You might know the Wilmington Blue Rocks -- the Class A Advanced affiliate of the Royals -- for their infamous donut hot dog or the greatest Minor League mascot ever created: Mr. Celery.
Eventually, though, you will come to know the Blue Rocks for something else entirely: triple plays.
On Tuesday night, the Blue Rocks turned their third triple play of the season when Myrtle Beach Pelicans catcher Victor Caratini popped up into shallow right field. Second baseman Humberto Arteaga turned his back to home plate and took off toward the wall, making an impressive catch while narrowly avoiding a collision with the team's right fielder.
And while all of that was going on, the runners on first and second failed to realize that a catch had been made. So, they were just chillin' on second and third, respectively, when Arteaga fired to shortstop Jack Lopez, who then relayed over to first baseman Ryan O'Hearn to complete the triple play.
The strangest part of that play is that it's the third triple play the Blue Rocks have turned in 2015. Back in June, the Blue Rocks turned a more classic version of the triple play -- one of the classic 5-4-3 around-the-horn variety. Mauricio Ramos got things started on a sharp grounder to the hot corner.
Prior to that, Lopez intentionally let an April line drive drop in, turning it into a ground ball so he could tag the runner leaving second, step on second to get the force on the guy coming from first and then fire to first to get the batter.
So what could have been a lineout was a ground ball instead. Lopez tagged [Steel] Russell near second for the first out, put his foot on the bag to force [Anthony] Caronia for the second out and then threw to first baseman Frank Schwindel to end the inning.
To put that into perspective, the last MLB team to turn three triple plays in one season was the 1979 Athletics. The most recent team to turn two in a season was the '07 Phillies.
This Blue Rocks team has three in 2015 and a fourth they turned in July of last season when second baseman Ramon Torres caught a low line drive as runners were moving from first and second. He flipped it to Lopez (who else?) at the bag who relayed to first to complete the feat.
For those of you keeping score at home, that means Lopez and Co. have turned four triple plays in 373 days.