In baseball, an unassisted triple play occurs when one defensive player manages to record three outs in a half-inning on his own all during one continuous play. It is one of the rarest individual feats in baseball, even more so than a perfect game. Triple plays are fairly rare in their own right.
The circumstances must be just right in order for an unassisted triple play to be possible. Namely, at least two runners must be on base (usually only two) and there have to be no outs in the inning. Additionally, the runners have to be running with the pitch, such as in a hit and run. All unassisted triple plays have taken the form of the defender catching a line drive for one out, stepping on a base to double off one runner for another out, and then tagging a second runner on his way to the next base for the third out. (Sometimes the order of the last two is switched.)
The feat is so rare that it has only occurred 12 times in modern Major League Baseball history and once in the 19th century.
| Table of contents |
|
|
MLB unassisted triple plays
19th century
Modern era
