A straight steal of home is one of the most exciting plays you'll see in baseball. A baserunner risking it all for a chance to score a surprise run.
Catch it once in a season from your favorite team and you might count yourself lucky. Twice in one game? Now that is rare.
Well, Double-A Springfield took it to another level on Thursday when baserunners stole home twice -- between two pitches -- in a 12-9 loss at Hammons Field. Down to their final strike of the inning, third baseman Dakota Harris and first baseman Trey Paige manufactured a pair of runs before the opposing hurler could get another pitch in.
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The Cardinals' Double-A affiliate was able to pull off the feat in part because it was facing a southpaw, Dodgers 2021 first-rounder Maddux Bruns, whose back is turned to the third-base runner when pitching out of the stretch.
Springfield strung together a rally in the bottom of the fifth that culminated with the bases loaded, where Harris was on third and Paige was on second. After left-handed-hitting Chase Davis fell down 0-2, Harris took off for home while Bruns was not looking home. So while catcher Nelson Quiroz signaled to throw home, by the time Bruns was able to step off and fire the ball in, it was too late.
Two minutes later -- after a brief discussion about whether the play was a stolen base or balk -- Paige took off for home while the pitcher was looking away from the catcher's signals again. Bruns stood no chance at beating the runner home as Springfield increased its lead to three runs.
To give a sense of how rare this was, since the start of Minor League Baseball's database in 2005, there have been 21 instances of a team stealing home twice in the same inning -- 13 of which came at the Rookie ball level.
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Only once did those swipes come in the same at-bat: July 6, 2023, between the DSL Yankees and Blue Jays.
Those two straight steals of home may not have been enough for the Cardinals to pull off a victory -- although they were enough to send the game to extras. And it proved to be one of the rarest moments of this young Minor League season and one that isn't likely to happen again for a long time.