April 28, 1991: Randy Ready opts for assisted triple play; Jason Grimsley gets first win of season for Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies were 4-9 when manager Nick Leyva was fired early in the 1991 season.1 They lost three of their first five games under new manager Jim Fregosi2 and were in fifth place in the National League East Division heading into the third game of a four-game series with the San Diego Padres on April 28 at Veterans Stadium. The Padres (11-7) were in first place, 1½ games ahead of both the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds in the NL West Division.3

Jason Grimsley, a 23-year-old right-hander in his third major-league season, was making his fifth start for the Phillies. Lack of run support had contributed to his 0-3 record, which included two 2-1 losses to the New York Mets. His 4.91 ERA was inflated by a poor outing against the St. Louis Cardinals eight days earlier, when he gave up five earned runs while recording only one out. His lack of control was concerning. In just 18 1/3 innings, he had issued 17 walks and thrown eight wild pitches. Walks had plagued him throughout his career. He issued 62 free passes in 75 2/3 innings his first two seasons.

Facing the Padres, his wildness continued. After walking Paul Faries and Tony Fernández to open the game, Grimsley fell behind perennial All-Star and legendary contact hitter Tony Gwynn,4 3-and-0. Grimsley worked his way back to a full count. In the press box, beat writer Ray Finocchiaro of the Wilmington (Delaware) News Journal, countered the grumblings of others who expected another walk. “Nah,” he said, “The runners will be going, line drive to second, triple play.”5

True to Finocchiaro’s prediction, the runners were running on the full-count pitch. Gwynn lined the ball to the right of second base for what looked like a hit that would increase his .375 batting average and give the Padres an early lead. But 31-year-old Randy Ready, a former Padre now in his third year as a part-time starter for the Phillies,6 moved to his right.

With a little hop, the second baseman speared the ball head-high. His momentum carrying him toward second, he stepped on the bag to retire Faries.

Fernández, running from first, arrived as Ready came across the base. Rather than reach out and tag Fernández to complete what would have been the National or American League’s ninth unassisted triple play of the twentieth century,7 and the second by a second baseman,8 Ready elected to throw the ball to first baseman Ricky Jordan for the third out.9

Having passed up an opportunity to add his name to a short list of players with solo triple plays,10 Ready was teased by his teammates. When asked after the game who was giving him a hard time, he responded, “Who wasn’t?”11 Ready claimed even former teammate Gwynn, whose liner started the play, asked him why he didn’t just tag the runner.12

The triple play rescued Grimsley from first-inning trouble and, according to Gwynn, changed the game: “He was a completely different pitcher after that. He was calm and relaxed.”13

Fregosi agreed it was a game-changing play, saying, “We were sky high after that.”14

Padres starter Eric Nolte, who was celebrating his 27th birthday, had control issues of his own. The lefty walked Lenny Dykstra and Jordan to put two runners on with one out in the first. Right fielder Dale Murphy lined a single on a 3-and-1 pitch, scoring Dykstra. Ready’s single scored Jordan. With the count full, Charlie Hayes made it 5-0 with a towering three-run homer.15 Dickie Thon got the fourth consecutive hit on a groundball to left, but Nolte escaped further damage by getting catcher Steve Lake to hit into a double play.

Grimsley was back in trouble in the second. Fred McGriff’s groundball single and a one-out walk to Jerald Clark put two men on for third baseman Marty Barrett, who had signed with the Padres after nine seasons with the Boston Red Sox. The 32-year-old Barrett, making just his second start of the season, tried to bunt and fouled the ball off his nose. The ball deflected in the air to Grimsley as Barrett collapsed to the ground.16

With Barrett headed to the hospital, Garry Templeton, in his 16th year in the majors and 10th with the Padres, came in to finish the at-bat. Batting .103 as a part-time player, Templeton hit a grounder back to Grimsley, who started a 1-6-3 double play.

The Phillies continued to hit Nolte hard. Grimsley led off the second with a single and advanced to third on Dykstra’s double. After Grimsley scored on Von Hayes’ sacrifice fly, Jordan knocked out Nolte with a line-drive double that plated Dykstra.

Murphy greeted reliever Wes Gardner with a single to right that scored Jordan for an 8-0 Phillies lead.

Grimsley, who after the game said the triple play helped him to relax,17 settled down in the third inning, retiring all three batters. In the fourth he had three strikeouts around a Gwynn single and a wild pitch.

In the fifth Grimsley benefited from another multi-out play. He walked Clark to open the inning. One out later Shawn Abner hit a pop foul in front of the first-base dugout. As Jordan made the catch, Clark tagged up and faked a break toward second. Jordan threw to Ready covering first. Clark slipped as he tried to return and was doubled off. Padres manager Greg Riddoch reflected, “We practice false breaks, but not when you’re down [eight] runs.”18

The right-handed Gardner, one day shy of his 30th birthday, slowed down the Phillies’ bats in the middle innings. He had given up nine earned runs in his previous four appearances covering four innings. But after allowing a hit to the first Phillies hitter he faced, Gardner retired the next 11 batters.

In the sixth Grimsley issued another leadoff walk and, with one out, his second wild pitch. Once again he kept the Padres off the board by striking out Fernández and getting Gwynn on a grounder to Ready.

Rich Rodríguez, making his eighth appearance, replaced Gardner on the mound to start the sixth. The lefty was in his second season with the Padres and entered the game with a 3.60 ERA. Thon, an All-Star shortstop for the Houston Astros in 1983, was in his third season with the Phillies. He drove the first pitch he saw from Rodríguez to deep left-center for a home run, making the score 9-0.

The Padres finally broke through in the seventh. Grimsley began the inning by walking McGriff. It was Grimsley’s sixth walk and the fourth to lead off the inning. He had been able to pitch around his earlier miscues, but this time, with one out, Clark hit a home run to center to break up the shutout. It was Clark’s third home run of the season and the first homer given up by Grimsley in 1991.

In the eighth inning Grimsley, having thrown 115 pitches, was replaced by Tommy Greene in a double switch that also removed Ready from the game. Grimsley’s seven innings matched his longest career outing, which he had accomplished three times in 1990.19 He also walked six batters, matching his season high.20

Greene pitched two perfect innings, striking out Benito Santiago to end the game, preserving a 9-2 victory for the Phillies. Grimsley earned the win. It was to be his only victory in 1991 against seven losses, in a season cut short by injuries.21

Before the 1992 season began, Grimsley was dealt to the Astros in exchange for right-hander Curt Schilling.22 Grimsley spent the entire 1992 season in the minors. Over the next 14 years he was a member of eight more organizations, pitching in the majors for six of them. His most productive season was 1999 with the New York Yankees (7-2, ERA 3.60). He made one appearance in the 1999 World Series against the Atlanta Braves, pitching 2 1/3 shoutout innings in Game Three.

Ready finished the 1991 season batting .249 with one home run. He appeared in 76 games, starting at second base 54 times. After stints with the Oakland A’s and Montreal Expos, he returned to Philadelphia in 1994 and was released in July 1995. He was a hitting coach with San Diego for three seasons, 2009-2011.

In a career spanning 13 years, Ready was never an everyday starter for a full season. His career highs of 124 games and 89 starts,23 occurred in 1987 with the Padres. He missed his chance for baseball notoriety by passing up the unassisted triple play. In an interview with Paul Hagen for MLB.com 24 years later, Ready admitted it was a missed opportunity. He laughed as he said, “I wish I had tagged Tony Fernández. I never realized how close he was to me. I had never been in that situation before. I never rehearsed it. … But I’m kind of over it.”24

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Randy Ready, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. A video of the triple play was viewed.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI199104280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1991/B04280PHI1991.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zheN5CsDWro

Notes

1 Leyva was in his third season managing the Phillies. His overall record with Philadelphia was 148-189.

2 Fregosi had managed the California Angels (June 1978-May 1981) and Chicago White Sox (1986-1988). He managed the Phillies for six seasons. The Phillies were 74-75 under Fregosi in 1991 and 431-463 in his six seasons there.

3 San Diego and Philadelphia both finished the season in third place in their respective divisions. The Phillies (78-84) and Chicago Cubs each ended 20 games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Padres (84-78) finished 10 games behind the Atlanta Braves.

4 Gwynn was named an All-Star six of the previous seven seasons. By the end of his career in 2001, he had 15 All-Star selections and eight batting titles. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2007.

5 Frank Dolson, “Ready Hears Fate’s Call: ‘Let’s get three,’” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 29, 1991: E1.

6 Ready was making his seventh start of the season at second. Wally Backman, who was signed as a free agent in January, also had seven starts, and Mickey Morandini, recently brought up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, had started four of the last five games. For the season, Morandini had 85 starts at second, Ready 54, and Backman 23.

7 Neal Ball, playing shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, turned the first “official” unassisted triple play on July 19, 1909. On May 8, 1878, Paul Hines, playing center field for the Providence Grays, was involved in a triple play. Some accounts of the play credit Hines with all three putouts, but others give him two putouts and an assist. MLB’s official historian, John Thorn, believes Hines did complete an unassisted triple play based on the baseball rules at that time.

8 Cleveland second baseman Bill Wambsganss turned an unassisted triple play in Game Five of the 1920 World Series. As of 2025 five second basemen have turned an unassisted triple play. That includes Ready’s teammate Morandini, who turned one the next season, on September 20, 1992.

9 According to the SABR triple-play database, this was the 608th triple play turned in major-league baseball since 1876. “SABR Triple Plays Database,” Google Sheets Document, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mfjUVrIhBv6HeltZXYZNPFs_VKopDF_unaZ883QPQr0/edit?gid=1613289983#gid=1613289983, accessed April 9, 2025. It was the first triple play the Phillies had turned since May 4, 1968, against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

10 At that time, the most recent unassisted triple play was turned by Washington Senators shortstop Ron Hansen on July 30, 1968, 23 years earlier. And that was the only one since first baseman Johnny Neun of the Detroit Tigers ended a game with an unassisted triple play on May 31, 1927.

11 Dolson, “Ready Hears Fate’s Call: ‘Let’s Get Three.’”

12 Dolson.

13 Bob Nightengale, “Padres Stay to the Bitter End: Baseball: Triple Play in First Inning Gives Padres Something to Think About During 9-2 Loss to Phillies,” Los Angeles Times, April 29, 1991, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-29-sp-635-story.html.

14 Nightengale.

15 Dick Polman, “Phils’ Victory Easy as One, Two, Three,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Apil 29, 1991: E1.

16 Nightengale, “Padres Stay to the Bitter End: Baseball: Triple Play in First Inning Gives Padres Something to Think About During 9-2 Loss to Phillies.” Barrett was taken to the hospital where x-rays showed his nose was not broken. He was able to pinch-hit the next night. Barrett played in 12 games for the Padres in 1991. After a stint in the minors, he was released by the Padres on June 14, ending his professional career.

17 Polman, “Phils’ Victory Easy as One, Two, Three.”

18 Nightengale, “Padres Stay to the Bitter End: Baseball: Triple Play in First Inning Gives Padres Something to Think About During 9-2 Loss to Phillies.”

19 In 1990 Grimsley had pitched seven innings on August 11, against the Montreal Expos, August 26, against the San Francisco Giants, and September 23, against Montreal.

20 On April 23, 1991, Grimsley walked six New York Mets batters in six innings. His career high was eight on September 18, 1990, against the Cardinals.

21 After a start on June 5, Grimsley was put on the disabled list. After three rehab starts in June for Scranton, he felt more discomfort. He pitched again for Scranton in August but aggravated a back injury and was sent home instead of rejoining the Phillies in September. Howard Eskin, “Drexel to ’Nova: Hit the Road,” Philadelphia Daily News, June 21, 1991: 127. Larry Holeva, “Grimsley Must Wait a Little Longer,” Scranton Times-Tribune, July 1, 1991: 19. Larry Holeva, “Shikles Meets His Stiffest Challengers Face On,” Scranton Times-Tribune, September 4, 1991: 29.

22 The trade turned out to be lopsided in favor of the Phillies. Schilling was 101-78 in his nine seasons with Philadelphia, which included three All-Star selections and pitching in the 1993 World Series. He had three more All-Star seasons with Arizona and Boston. He was co-MVP of the 2001 World Series with Arizona and pitched in the 2004 and 2007 World Series with Boston.

23 In 1987 Ready started 40 games at third base, 39 games at second base, and 10 games in left field for the Padres.

24 Paul Hagen, “Ready Nearly Made History with 1991 Triple Play,” MLB.com, August 27, 2015, https://www.mlb.com/news/randy-ready-nearly-made-unassisted-triple-play/c-145696294.