Phillies turn triple play in win over Padres
SAN DIEGO - The bouncing ball carried Maikel Franco toward third base. Immediately, he knew. He scampered four steps to third and fired to second, just when everyone expected a throw to first for the double play. But Cesar Hernandez waited at the second-base bag. In a half-second, Hernandez caught and fired to first, where Padres outfielder Jabari Blash was beaten by a half step. In the crucial moment of a 6-5 win, the Phillies had created the play of schoolyard dreams.
SAN DIEGO - The bouncing ball carried Maikel Franco toward third base. Immediately, he knew. He scampered four steps to third and fired to second, just when everyone expected a throw to first for the double play. But Cesar Hernandez waited at the second-base bag. In a half-second, Hernandez caught and fired to first, where Padres outfielder Jabari Blash was beaten by a half step. In the crucial moment of a 6-5 win, the Phillies had created the play of schoolyard dreams.
A 5-4-3 triple play.
"That's a beautiful thing, huh?" Franco said.
The team's first triple play in seven years preserved a tenuous lead Sunday. It did not feel secure until Franco executed his bold plan.
"It kind of surprised me when he went to second," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "I'm glad he did."
"I thought Maik was coming to me," first baseman Tommy Joseph said.
"Every time there's a ground ball to third base, I go to second," Hernandez said. "It's my instinct. I didn't know if he was going to throw to second or first, but I always go there just to be ready."
Franco pumped his right fist as Joseph snatched Hernandez's throw to complete it. Not since Eric Bruntlett's memorable unassisted triple play to end the game on Aug. 23, 2009, had the Phillies turned one. It was the 32nd triple play in team history.
Their last 5-4-3 triple play came in 2007, when Abraham Nunez, Chase Utley, and Wes Helms combined for the rare feat.
On Sunday, reliever Edubray Ramos walked the first two batters in the seventh before Blash chopped a slider into the dirt in front of home plate. Franco's first step allowed the triple play to happen. He was positioned closer than normal to the bag, his reaction quick. The slugging third baseman is not the fleetest of foot, but the Phillies have always valued his defensive instincts.
"You can't ask for a better guy to start a triple play," Joseph said. "Good hands. Strong arm."
Blash went from home to first in 4.69 seconds, and he made three outs. The Phillies dashed toward their dugout in celebration, but the umpires delayed them as San Diego weighed a replay review.
A grateful Ramos pointed at Franco.
"I had never been part of a triple play in my life," Ramos said. "It really, really helped me."
The rookie smiled wide. The Phillies, before they boarded buses to Los Angeles, basked in the triple-play glory.
"I thought I would hit into one before I would be on the successful end of one," said Joseph, not the fastest runner. "That's pretty awesome."
Joseph, with a pinch-hit single in the seventh to score Hernandez from second, put his team back ahead after Jerad Eickhoff surrendered a sizable lead. The rest was simple. Hector Neris struck out the side in the eighth. Jeanmar Gomez recorded his 29th save with a clean ninth inning.
Eickhoff, like most young pitchers, has trouble when facing a lineup for the third time in a game. The opposition's OPS when facing Eickhoff for the first time is .664. It decreases to .635 the second time through the order. But the third time through, hitters have a .932 OPS against Eickhoff.
"That's why a good starting performance is really special," Mackanin said. "It's hard to get around that third time in the lineup."
Eickhoff's ERA in the sixth inning is 11.57. The Padres dinged him for three sixth-inning runs, capped by Ryan Schimpf's fly-ball homer to right on a hanging curveball. It traveled just 330 feet. An exasperated Aaron Altherr put his arms in the air, shocked that the ball sailed over the fence. Eickhoff allowed two short homers to the right-field corner, where the stands jut into the field.
"I had a lot of good contact that I wanted most of the day," Eickhoff said.
He iced his elbow in the clubhouse when the Phillies turned three. "I was pretty jacked up," Eickhoff said. They all were, and it was all because of Franco's conviction.
"First and second, nobody out," Franco said. "To get out of that is a beautiful thing for me and my team."
@MattGelb
