Baseball is back (for now), and the Cubs have had one of the hotter starts, opening the year 4-1.
They’re currently losing to the Reds tonight in Cincinnati, but even if they do fall to 4-2, they’ll have at least had a special moment, when Kris Bryant turned a 5-3 triple play tonight to end the seventh inning. It was the first MLB triple play since the Twins turned one against the Braves on August 7th last season, meaning it’s been nearly a year.
Triple play!
¯_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/DMnrP7oAsQ
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) July 30, 2020
Considering the bases were loaded with no one out, that is perhaps the quickest turnaround to a run-expectancy chart possible. Of course, it probably shouldn’t have counted, as replays showed Bryant didn’t actually catch the ball. At first it was pretty odd that the Reds didn’t even ask for a review; considering it took a run off the board, that would seem like an obvious situation for replay.
Replay shows KB didn’t catch the ball cleanly at 3rd, but the play isn’t reviewable. pic.twitter.com/mYxmT43LAy
— Billy Krumb (@ClubhouseCancer) July 30, 2020
Except it’s not actually reviewable, because baseball’s replay rules continue to be ridiculously convoluted.
A line drive in the infield is not reviewable pic.twitter.com/qy4lS4hovz
— C. Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent) July 30, 2020
That catches in the infield can’t be reviewed makes very little sense, as it’s seemingly implying that umpires make those calls correctly 100% of the time. But, hey, the Cubs will certainly take it, and as long as they don’t mount a ridiculous comeback from this point it’s not really going to affect the outcome of a game. The Cubs were due for one, too; they hadn’t turned a triple play since 1997.
Hey hey, the first triple play in 2020! It's the 721st in @MLB history and the first turned by the @Cubs since May 10, 1997. Check out the #SABR Triple Plays Database for details on every triple play ever recorded: https://t.co/BJ5VNBgHr4 https://t.co/oNCuumdPMs
— SABR (@sabr) July 30, 2020
And the team they turned it against twenty-three years ago?
You guessed it: the San Francisco Giants. (Sorry, it would have been way better if it were the Reds, but still.)
Anyway, it’s wild that baseball can cram through huge, sport-changing rule updates like the universal DH, expanded rosters, and even perhaps going to seven-inning doubleheaders later in the season, but still can’t get replay right.
UPDATE: The Cubs did indeed lose, but the team’s Twitter account offered their own version of the Bryant “catch”.
Final: Reds 12, Cubs 7. pic.twitter.com/c2QhKA8md7
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) July 30, 2020
A+ gif work.
