Officially, one of Major League Baseball’s rarest plays happened on Friday night when the Washington Nationals turned a triple play against the New York Mets. MLB tweeted the play on its X account, missing an important detail in doing so.
New York’s Jesse Winker came to the plate in the top of the fourth inning with nobody out and runners on first and second. He hit a low liner to first base, which Nathaniel Lowe snagged. Lowe then threw to second to retire Brandon Nimmo, who took off to third. Shortstop CJ Abrams then threw back to first to retire Mark Vientos, who, like Nimmo, took off on contact. With that the triple play was complete.
There’s only one problem. As was shown clearly on the SNY broadcast, while Lowe picked the ball cleanly, he didn’t catch it. Worse — at least for the Mets — the play is not reviewable.
To be fair, Washington almost certainly would have turned a double play had the correct call been made, the triple play should not have happened.
And while MLB sharing video of a triple play without mentioning the controversy was expected, several people offered the added context.