The New York Yankees recorded an extremely unusual double play during Wednesday night's game in Washington.
It happened in the bottom of the eighth inning with Nationals runners Joey Gallo at second and Juan Yepez on first and nobody out as the Nationals held a 5-2 lead. Nats batter Jose Tina hit a deep fly ball over the head of center fielder Aaron Judge. Judge played it off the wall and threw it into shortstop Anthony Volpe outside the infield.
That's when things got a bit crazy. Gallo was being held up at third, but tried to run home. Volpe threw home to catcher Austin Wells, forcing Gallo to head back to third. In the meantime, Yepez was halfway to third and had to turn back to second. Gallo threw to first baseman DJ LeMahieu as he covered second base, forcing Yepez into a rundown. As LeMahieu chased Yepez back to third, Gallo ran towards home. LeMahieu threw home to Wells, forcing Gallo to head back to third. Wells threw the ball to third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., who was covering third and able to put the tag on Gallo for the first out.
Meanwhile, Yepez was still caught between second and third base. Chisholm began chasing Yepez back to second, but could not throw to second because no one was covering the bag. However, with Tina in the middle of the basepath between first and second, Chisholm threw to second baseman Gleyber Torres, who was able to put the tag on Tina to complete the double play.
Have you seen a 8-6-2-3-2-5-4 double play before?
— MLB (@MLB) August 29, 2024
Now you have. pic.twitter.com/sXEgotd1MJ
In the end, the play is scored as a single for Tena and a 8-6-2-3-2-5-4 double play. We cannot say for sure whether this is the first time this double play has been recorded, but it is certainly the first time we have seen it. We have seen some unusual double plays due to players forgetting the number of outs, but this play was right out of Little League.
Despite the baserunning mishaps, the Nationals were able to hold on to beat the Yankees 5-2 to win the rubber match of their three-game series.
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Moonlighting as a blogger to pursue my interest and enjoyment of sports. Former high school and Division I athlete (now a "retired" family man) that loves watching and discussing all sports. Follow me on Twitter (@HoldoutSports) and like Holdout Sports on Facebook.
