Triple Plays & Triple Shutouts
Rockies turn first triple play since 2015 and gets shutout three-straight a week later for the first time ever
Baseball giveth and baseball taketh away. On any given day on ballfields all across the globe you can witness the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. For the Colorado Rockies, it’s been more of the latter with some thrills gently sprinkled throughout.
The first homestand of the season brought about a majority of the Rockies three wins so far this season, not to mention only the fifth triple play in franchise history.
With only 738 triple plays having occurred in the Majors across roughly 225,000 games, you’d have to attend nearly four years of games at your home ballpark before seeing one. I, for one, had never seen one before. The same is true for the three parties involved in the 5-4-3 triple play on April 5.
With no outs and runners on first and second, Jacob Wilson of the Athletics hit a sharp ground ball off Germán Márquez down the line that brought Ryan McMahon towards third base. He fielded the ball, stepped on third and fired to second baseman Kyle Farmer who quickly offloaded the baseball to first baseman Michael Toglia. Perfection for the first triple play of 2025.
Farmer, 34, said he once turned an unassisted triple play while at the University of Georgia, but had never seen one in person. McMahon had never even come close to one and was nonchalant about the first Rockies’ triple play in a decade. When asked if it was a baseball he would want for his personal collection, the 30-year-old joked, “No, Toglia probably threw it into the stands.”
Toglia, in fact, did not toss it into the stands. The baseball rested safely on the desk of clubhouse manager Mike “Tiny” Pontarelli following the 7-4 loss to the A’s. I did catch up with Toglia about the phenomenal play.
Lyons: Have you ever been a part of a triple play before?
Toglia: No. That was my first one. And you could feel it coming too. Off the bat, you're like, ‘Oh, that's a triple play.’
Lyons: When the ball goes to McMahon and it takes him to the bag at third, when does it sink in that maybe the triple play was possible?
Toglia: As soon as he went for the bag, I was like, ‘I need to get ready for a triple play.’
Lyons: Wow. And the deliveries were clean.
Toglia: Everything was clean about it. Perfect throws all around.
Lyons: What was the vibe like in the dugout afterward?
Toglia: I haven't smiled that hard in a long time. That was a lot of fun. Like little kids playing Wiffle ball.
Lyons: That’s exactly what Farmer said. What did you do with the ball at that point?
Toglia: We kept it. And I think all the infielders that touched it are gonna sign it.
Lyons: So you’re going to exclude Ezequiel Tovar, the NL Gold Glove Award winner at shortstop?
Toglia: (Laughs) He should sign it.
Lyons: Did you consider pocketing the baseball before giving it to one of the authenticators?
Toglia: I knew that it needed to go to someone else. Just don't chuck it into the stands. Rule number one.
Lyons: Helton did that with the Troy Tulowtizki unassisted triple play baseball.
Toglia: Did he really? Dang. I’m gonna have to give him some grief about that.
Three seconds later, Toglia followed through on his statement. He walked over to Helton, who extended his stay through the entire first homestand to watch the debuts of Chase Dollander and Zac Veen, and asked him about the Tulo ball.
The other triple plays in Colorado history:
Sept. 1, 2015 vs. ARI
Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt hit a line drive to José Reyes, who tossed to second base where DJ LeMahieu fired to first baseman Ben Paulsen for the 6-4-3 triple play in the ninth inning of a 6-4 loss to the Diamondbacks at Coors Field.
May 18, 2014 vs. SD
This 5-4-3 triple play was aided by runner’s interference courtesy of former Rockies’ prospect Everth Cabrera. Nolan Arenado to DJ LeMahieu to Justin Morneau on the Carlos Quentin ground ball. (Another ex-Rockies, Seth Smith, was the other baserunner during the 8-6 win over the Padres in Denver.)
April 29, 2007 vs. ATL
You can probably picture this play by Troy Tulowtizki in your mind, right? The 13th unassisted triple play in baseball history began with a line drive off the bat of Atlanta’s Chipper Jones in the top of the seventh. Tulo touched second to double-off Kelly Johnson and tagged Edgar Renteria to complete the trifecta all by himself during this 9-7 win. (And yes, Helton tossed the ball into the stands. It would later be retrieved.)
April 10, 2003 vs. STL
This 3-6-6 triple play came courtesy of a line drive by Orlando Palmeiro to Helton for the first out. The Toddfather tossed it to shortstop José Hernández who touched second base (unoccupied by another Hall of Famer, Scott Rolen) and tagged Tino Martinez in the top of the sixth during a 7-6 victory for Colorado.
*Note - Rockies have hit into only three triple plays: Sept. 12, 2007 @ PHI, hit by Matt Holliday; June 14, 1999 vs. SF, hit by Edgard Clemente; and June 13, 1998 @ LAD, hit by Kurt Abbott.
Then there’s that “triple play” in San Diego over the weekend from April 11-13. It wasn’t the three-outs-with-one-pitch variety like a week prior. Rather, it was three consecutive shutouts, on just nine hits and 12 total base runners, twirled by Padres’ pitchers at Petco Park against the Rockies .
As historically poor as Colorado’s offense can be on the road, never had they been held to zero runs in three consecutive games. On 17 different occasions previously, they’d been shutout in back-to-back games. It happened to the 2021, 2014 and 2012 clubs twice in the same season. In their five playoff campaigns, only the 1995 club ever avoided the double-shutout.
Trivia (Difficulty Level: Very Hard)
Q: Jason Jennings and Ubaldo Jiménez have the most complete game shutouts in franchise history with three. Each man recorded two in the same season: 2006 and 2010, respectively. Who’s the only other Rockies’ hurler to have two shutouts in the same season?
Yarns From The Ballyard
Some might call Pat Murphy a nice man. Others, a national treasure. The reigning NL Manager of the Year has to keep one of the loosest clubhouses in the game. He has a great sense of humor and it’s on full display whenever I go over to the visiting side of the ballpark and join the Milwaukee media in the manager’s office.
The first time I introduced myself to him, he responded with “Patrick, nice to meet you. Great name.” It took about a minute for me to realize his subtle wordplay.
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This year, the subject of favorite sweets quickly morphed into a conversation about Death Row meals, the best pizza places in Phoenix and Murphy’s friendship with legendary basketball coach Rick Majerus before getting down to brass tax about his squad, which is currently 10-9.
Rockies Rewind
4/14/2005: LHP Javier López was claimed off waivers by the Diamondbacks
López joined the Rockies via trade with the Boston Red Sox who had claimed the 25-year-old in the previous year’s Rule 5 draft from Arizona. He was quite good during his rookie campaign in 2003 before losing his way the next two seasons with Colorado.
It would be the 2006 season in which López would really begin to flourish with Boston. Then, he won his first ring in 2007 with the Red Sox. He won another with the San Francisco Giants in 2010. And two more with the Giants in 2012 and 2014 to give him four, making him the former Rockie with the most World Series Championships.
4/14/2015: Scott Oberg earns a win in his Major League debut
Oberg’s time in the Majors came to a premature end due to recurring blood clots caused by thoracic outlet syndrome. That career got its start due to unfortunate circumstances as well. John Axford, the club’s closer at the time, was placed on the family medical emergency list to care for his two-year-old son who was bitten by a rattlesnake at a rental home near the team’s Spring Training facility in Scottsdale, Ariz.
4/15/1999: Rockies defeat the Padres to earn manager Jim Leyland his 1,000th win.
Leyland became the 45th manager to reach the milestone. Colorado would finish 72-90 which, at that time, was the second-worst record in club history behind the 1993 expansion squad. After the self-described “pitcher’s manager” stepped away with two years left on his deal, he became a scout with the St. Louis Cardinals believing he would never manage again. He came back to manage the Detroit Tigers, took them to the World Series in 2006 and 2012, winning 700 more games along the way. In 2017, the career minor leaguer became the only person to manage Team USA to a victory in the World Baseball Classic.
4/16/1994: Dinger is born/hatched.
According to a spreadsheet I made years ago on baseball mascots, Dinger is the 14th-oldest in MLB. If you subtract a double-dipper like the Milwaukee Brewers with their Bernie the Brewer (1973) and all those Sausages (1993), then he’s 13th-oldest amongst active mascots. (If you want to see a real furry nightmare, search for “Dandy,” the short-lived mascot of the New York Yankees from 1979-1981.)
For $375, you can have the mascot of the Colorado Rockies attend your event for 30-45 minutes. If you’re a non-profit organization like, say, SABR, then it’s only $200.
Trivia
A: Roger Bailey, two shutouts in 1997. Bailey suffered back injuries during a car accident (rear-ended) with teammate Mike Munóz in 1998 near the club’s Spring Training in Tucson, AZ. Though he would pitch in the minors over the next two seasons despite issues with his back, he would never make it back to the Majors. His final game in MLB was Sept. 27, 1997.