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VIDEO: One, Two, Three; It's A Triple Play For the A's

Adam Rosales of the Oakland Athletics gets his throw off to Chris Carter at first base to complete Tuesday night's triple play.
Thearon W. Henderson
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Getty Images
Adam Rosales of the Oakland Athletics gets his throw off to Chris Carter at first base to complete Tuesday night's triple play.

For the baseball fans out there:

MLB.com has posted video of Tuesday night's triple play pulled off by the Oakland Athletics during the team's 4-1 win over the Minnesota Twins.

It was a classic 5-4-3 (that's third-to-second-to-first for the uninitiated) gem of a play.

Triple plays aren't the rarest of baseball feats. The Society for American Baseball Research has a spreadsheet listing all those in the Major Leagues before Tuesday. Last night's was the 690th. But it was just the third triple play this year.

By the way, there's no reason for the Twins' Trevor Plouffe to be ashamed. He hit into Tuesday's triple play. Some of the game's biggest names did the same thing during their careers, as this list from SABR shows. They include Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Tony Gwynn.

Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson holds the dubious distinction of having grounded into the most triple plays — four — according to SABR. That's one more than Robinson, perhaps the best third baseman ever, helped turn while in the field.

Another trivia note: There have been just 15 unassisted triple plays in MLB history. You can see who turned them here, and then check out how they were done here.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.