BOSTON – The Braves lost on Tuesday night, but this should not define their season.
They accomplished something that will be fun to remember forever: They turned a triple play. It went 8-3-5, from Michael Harris II to Matt Olson to Austin Riley.
This was the Braves’ first triple play since May 6, 2004, versus San Diego. It was the first triple play in Major League Baseball this season. (The last came on Sept. 20, 2022, in the Rangers-Angels game.)
With runners on first and second base – and no outs, obviously – Michael Harris II ran in from center field and caught a fly ball. Harris saw that former teammate Adam Duvall was too far off first base, so he made an off-balance throw, on the run, to Matt Olson for the second out. Then the runner at second base bolted for third base, so Olson fired to Austin Riley for an easy third out to complete the triple play.
“Yeah, I guess my job was to only make the catch, and I saw Duvall, he came off a little bit and thought it was gonna get down,” Harris said. “So I did my job and got it to first, and Oly did a good job to get it to Riley, who made a good pick and put the tag on him. This is the first one I’ve been a part of, and it’s pretty exciting.”
Added Riley: “It was cool. Never been a part of one, so can check that off and say I’ve done it.”
Charlie Morton, who was on the mound at the time, had a good explanation for why it happened on the play, which began when Triston Casas hit a soft fly ball.
“What look like it happened was that I got a ball that was hit soft, but it was a full swing and I think the runners might have gotten caught off guard thinking that (Casas) got it better than he did,” Morton said. “And Mikey came in and made the play. That’s my guess. My guess is that the swing looked good and they just got thrown off and didn’t really know where the ball was. You don’t see stuff like that. I think the guys were just thrown off by the contact.”
The Braves lost to the Red Sox by six runs. But they can still appreciate achieving one of baseball’s rarest feats.
“Win or lose, I guess you don’t see that every day. I mean, you don’t see it every week,” Harris said. “It’s baseball, you lose games. You don’t get triple plays every day. I guess there was an exciting moment in the day, and we’re just looking forward to moving on to tomorrow and trying to get a win.”
