The National League's 8-0 win Tuesday night stood out for many reasons. Chipper Jones' final All-Star Game, Melky Cabrera's terrific performance, Justin Verlander's poor performance, the performance of the entire National League pitching staff and the whole Billy Butler/Royals fans/Robinson Cano drama were among the top storylines. But I also loved the fact that the National League had a record-setting three triples in the first four innings. Triples are one of the most exciting plays in baseball, and the NL gave us three within the first four innings.
The big one was, of course, big Pablo Sandoval's bases-clearing triple in the first. Here it is:
Then, in the fourth inning, Rafael Furcal started a two-out rally with a three-bagger of his own and Ryan Braun tacked on a triple after Melky Cabrera's nail-in-the-coffin homer.
Four innings, three triples.
This was the first time in All-Star Game history that one team collected three triples in one game. In fact, there have only been six times when a team had two triples in the same game: 1934 (AL), 1951 (NL), 1976 (NL), 1978 (AL), 1983 (AL) and 2004 (AL).
Matt Holliday pretty well summed up what could possibly explain the triples explosion.
"Anything can happen," he said. "Baseball's crazy like that."
Crazy it was. Perhaps even crazier was that Sandoval got in on the action. He has zero triples this season and only 12 in his career. In his regular-season career, Sandoval has tripled once every 158 at-bats. Tuesday night, he did it in his first, against arguably the best pitcher in baseball.
Even crazier, the NL pulled off this feat without needing the help of Michael Bourn. The speedy Braves center fielder has six triples this season and 41 on his career, but Tuesday he didn't record an at-bat.
"No, I'm good," Bourn said when asked if he was jealous he didn't get in on the action. "I'll just save them for the regular season."
That's because his NL teammates took care of history without him. A triple is exciting. In the National League's Tuesday night victory, it had three times the fun.
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