August 15, 2017: Red Sox turn their second triple play of the twenty-first century

SABR maintains a Triple Play Database, which lists all major-league triple plays executed since 1876. Through the 2024 season, there have been 737 of them. Sometimes whole seasons go by without even one triple play. There are devoted fans who have attended hundreds of baseball games who have never seen one.

Sometimes, however, triple plays happen in clusters. Twelve teams in major-league history have executed three triple plays in a season. The Boston Red Sox did it in 1924, and again in 1979. On July 17, 1990, at Fenway Park, the Red Sox were victims of two triple plays in the same game – both scored 5-4-3 – but it was a game they won, beating the Minnesota Twins, 1-0.

In all, the Red Sox have executed 29 triple plays in their first 124 seasons. They have been the victims of 34. The first seven opponents’ triple plays all came on the road, from 1908 through 1911. The first two were in back-to-back games in Detroit on June 6 and 7, 1908, both games won by Boston, 10-5 and 9-5.

The first time the Red Sox were triple-play victims in front of the home crowd was in the World Series championship season of 1915 – on August 10 in the second game of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns. The Red Sox lost the first game, 3-2, but won the game in which they were victimized, 10-3.

The first Red Sox triple play at home was more than 22 years in the waiting – on August 11, 1922. At that time, they had only three on the road – on September 5, 1919, in Philadelphia, on July 25, 1920, at the Polo Grounds in New York, and on April 28, 1922, at Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox pulled off no triple plays at home from September 5, 1936, through September 28, 1963. Boston’s third longest stretch without a home-field triple play was from July 8, 1994, when shortstop John Valentin turned an unassisted triple play against the Seattle Mariners, to August 16, 2011. (As of 2024, the Red Sox had gone 45 years without turning a triple play in a road game, since second baseman Jack Brohamer, first baseman Bob Watson, and third baseman Butch Hobson tripled up the Texas Rangers on July 28, 1979.)

As of 2024, the most recent Red Sox triple play was on August 15, 2017, against the St. Louis Cardinals. The game brought together two teams that had both been playing well. Boston had won 10 of its last 12 games, coming from a half-game behind to take the lead in the American League East Division by 4½ games over the second-place New York Yankees. St. Louis had won eight games in a row before dropping one on August 13 in Atlanta, and stood second in the NL Central Division, just 1½ games behind the Chicago Cubs.

The starting pitcher for John Farrell’s Red Sox was right-hander Rick Porcello, with a disappointing record of 6-14 and a 4.63 ERA. He had been 22-4 (3.15) in 2016, winning the AL Cy Young Award. Porcello came into this game, noted Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “having allowed the most hits in the league this season.”1 The Cardinals’ Mike Matheny started righty Mike Leake, who also had a losing record (7-10, 3.48).

Both pitchers fared well for the first four innings – though Leake lucked out by giving up only one run in the bottom of the first after yielding four consecutive singles. With two outs, Andrew Benintendi singled to right, Hanley Ramírez singled to left, and Rafael Devers singled to left, driving in Benintendi. Xander Bogaerts reached on an infield single to first base, loading the bases. Leake got Mitch Moreland to ground out to end the inning.

Porcello, who had retired the Cardinals in order in the first, surrendered a single in the second and walked two in the third. Leake hit a batter in the second and walked one in the third, but the score remained 1-0, Red Sox, after three full innings.

The Cardinals mounted a threat in the top of the fourth. On a 2-and-2 count. shortstop Paul DeJong led off by singling between short and third. Center fielder Dexter Fowler, also swinging on 2-and-2, singled the other way, grounding between first and second.

Yadier Molina was up. The 35-year-old catcher was in his 14th major-league season, and he had made eight All-Star teams and received eight Gold Glove Awards. He had also finished in the NL’s Top 10 in most double plays grounded into six times. He’d hit into a double play back in the second inning.

Molina jumped on Porcello’s first pitch and hit it right to Devers, just a step off the third-base bag. The 20-year-old Devers – appearing in just his 17th major-league game after a July promotion from Triple A – snagged it, turned and took one step to touch the bag, then threw to second baseman Eduardo Núñez, who was standing on the second-base bag. Núñez threw it to Moreland at first base. Inning over.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote, “Porcello couldn’t have picked up a ball, cradled it, and delivered it to a better place than where Devers fielded it to start the triple play.”2 Boston had turned its first triple play since August 16, 2011, against the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park, and only its second of the twenty-first century.3 It was the second triple play of the 2017 season involving the Red Sox; they had been victims on May 2, at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles.4

As for Molina, it was the second time in three seasons that he had hit into a triple play. On May 9, 2015, the Pittsburgh Pirates had turned his two-on, no-out liner into a 4-5-4 triple play.5

The Red Sox infield added a double play on Cardinals DH José Martínez’s grounder in the fifth. Boston’s batters then broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth. After Jackie Bradley Jr. flied out, Núñez singled to center. So did right fielder Mookie Betts. Left fielder Benintendi was hit by a pitch, loading the bases.6 The DH, Ramírez, doubled down the left-field line, driving in two runs. Devers was walked intentionally. Bogaerts singled to left, driving in Benintendi. Moreland singled to short, driving in Ramírez.

Matt Bowman replaced Leake and gave up three hits in a row – a two-run double to center by catcher Sandy León; an RBI single to left by Bradley, driving in Moreland; and a Núñez single through the right side, scoring León. Ten Red Sox in a row had reached base. The eight-run inning made it a 9-0 game.

Porcello was hit for three runs in the top of the sixth. After back-to-back one-out singles, Porcello got the second out, then surrendered Fowler’s two-run double to left-center. Carson Kelly pinch-hit for Molina and singled to left, driving in Fowler. Porcello then got the third out.

The Red Sox responded with a run in their half of the sixth against Brett Cecil, the third Cardinals pitcher of the game. Devers, Bogaerts, and Moreland singled, and Bradley drew a bases-loaded, two-out, eight-pitch walk. It was 10-3, Red Sox.  

Porcello retired the side in the top of the seventh. John Brebbia took over from Cecil and set down the Red Sox in order.

For the eighth, Joe Kelly relieved Porcello. St. Louis rookie Luke Voit – who had pinch-hit in the sixth and singled, then remained in the game at first base – doubled to center. He took third on an infielder grounder, then scored on DeJong’s single to deep short.

Sam Tuivailala faced three Red Sox batters in the bottom of the eighth. One reached on a one-out error but was soon erased on a double play. Closer Robby Scott took over pitching for the Red Sox in the ninth. He walked one but otherwise faced no difficulty.

The final score was 10-4, Red Sox. Porcello picked up his seventh win of the season, but he went on to lead the majors in losses with 17 and home runs surrendered with 38. It was quite a comedown after a Cy Young season. Leake bore the loss and dropped to 7-11.

It was a notable day for Rafael Devers. Besides kicking off the triple play, his 2-for-4 game gave him seven multihit performances in his first 17 big-league games. He had driven in runs in 10 of those games, and he was batting .348.

The 2017 Red Sox won the second of what turned out to be three AL East Division titles in a row but lost the AL Division Series to the eventual World Series champion Houston Astros.vii The Cardinals finished third in the NL Central.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Victoria Monte and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Rafael Devers, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and YouTube.org. See also Peter Abraham, “Sox Erupt in Fifth,” Boston Globe, August 16, 2017: C1, C5.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS201708150.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2017/B08150BOS2017.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwkL3wFp-Kw

Notes

1 Derrick Goold, “Roof Falls In on Cardinals,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 16, 2017: B1.  

2 Goold.

3 The 2011 triple play was in the second game of a doubleheader. With Erik Bedard pitching for Boston, it was a 5-4-3 triple play hit into by Rays shortstop Sean Rodríguez and executed by Jed Lowrie to Dustin Pedroia to Adrián González.

4 The Red Sox were leading, 5-2, when they came to bat in the bottom of the eighth. Moreland singled, Pedroia walked, and on a 3-and-2 count to Zack Britton, Bradley hit into a 6-4-3 triple play. Shortstop J.J. Hardy failed to catch the popup in shallow left. The Red Sox assumed the infield fly rule had been called but it had not. Neither baserunner had advanced, so both were tagged out, and Bradley had already started walking back to the dugout, so he was out automatically. Peter Abraham and Julian Benbow, “Outraged Machado Rips Away,” Boston Globe, May 3, 2017: C5; “2017 Orioles Red Sox Triple Play,” YouTube video (Express Highlights), 1:34, accessed January 2025.

5 Neil Walker of the Pirates caught Molina’s sharp liner and threw to Jung Ho Kang at third to double off Jhonny Peralta. Kang then threw back to Walker at second to double off Jason Heyward. Through the 2024 season, it was the only recorded 4-5-4 triple play in major-league history. Stephen Nesbitt, “Win vs. Rival a Sight for Sore Eyes: Unprecedented Triple Play, Two Big Innings Help Top NL Central Leaders for the First Time,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 10, 2015: C-3.

6 He had to leave the game after the inning was over, with a bruised left knee.

7 As of 2024, the only other triple play involving the Red Sox was an 8-3-5 triple play turned by the Atlanta Braves on July 25, 2023, at Fenway Park. According to SABR’s Triple Play database, it was the first recorded 8-3-5 triple play in a major-league game since the National League’s Boston Beaneaters against the Providence Grays in June 1884. (The Beaneaters franchise currently exists as the Atlanta Braves.) Molly Burkhardt, “Braves Turn First Triple Play of ’23 – in a Way Not Seen Since 1884!” MLB.com, July 26, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/news/braves-turn-first-triple-play-of-2023-season