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Mariners Analysis: M’s Turn Bizarre Triple Play

By Brady Farkas

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We all know the Mariners can be frustrating at times. Frustrating. Vexing. Upsetting. Heartbreaking. Exhilarating. The Mariners can be a lot of different things.

They can do a lot of different things, too. Sometimes they can hit, sometimes they can field, sometimes they can pitch. Some days they can do all of those, and some of them, they can do none of them.

Well, on Sunday in the fourth inning against the Blue Jays, the M’s did something awesome, and unlikely. They turned the 11th triple play in franchise history.

We’ll show it to you, here, and then we’ll break it down for you… It’s confusing.

1. Ryan Goins, the batter, grounds to first base. Mark Trumbo fields the ball and steps on the bag. That’s pretty obvious. There’s the first out.

2. Kevin Pillar, who was the original runner on first, is no longer forced at second base, since Trumbo stepped on the bag for the out of first. That is why he is able to stay in the rundown between first and second.

3. I’m not quite sure why Carrera, the runner originally on 3rd, doesn’t immediately go when he sees the rundown ensuing between first and second.

4. When Brad Miller decides he’s going after Carrera, Carrera concedes that he’ll probably be out, so he decides to stay in the rundown long enough to allow Pillar to get to third base in the chaos. That would leave the Jays with two outs and a runner at 3rd.

5. Mike Zunino decides to run Carrera all the way back to third base, where Pillar is already standing. Zunino then tags both runners. The lead runner is the one who is safe in that situation, so when Zunino tags Carrera first, he’s safe. He then tags Pillar, who is out.

6. But then Carrera leaves the bag, so Zunino tags him too.

BOOM!

Go M’s.

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