This was just your everyday, run-of-the-mill 4-6-5-6-5-3-4 triple play.
“That was not quite how you draw it up,” Yankees first baseman Lyle Overbay said with a straight face.
“That’s nothing you ever practice or plan for,” shortstop Jayson Nix said, understating things.
“That’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever had on a field,” third baseman Kevin Youkilis said. “You don’t see one written up like that. It’s special.”
All were right in their descriptions of the triple play that effectively snuffed any Orioles comeback hopes and pried ace C.C. Sabathia out of a potential nasty eighth inning Friday night, allowing the Yankees to go on to a 5-2 victory, their fourth straight.
“Any time you get a triple play, you’re in a bind,” said Nix, who entered the game after starting shortstop Eduardo Nunez was hit by a pitch on the right wrist in the second inning. “No out, runners on and you go from that to inning over.”
The Orioles gifted the Yankees with three runs in the bottom of the seventh when center fielder Adam Jones botched a bases-loaded drive that allowed all three runs to score.
But Baltimore quickly threatened against Sabathia in the eighth. Alexi Casilla and Nick Markakis both singled to put runners on first and second. Manny Machado worked the count full, then sent a laser toward Robinson Cano at second. Everybody froze. Cano short-hopped the ball.
“The two lead runners made the right play,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “It’s a line-drive short hop, you can’t go anywhere because if he catches it on the fly, he does get both outs. We just made a mistake on the trail runner [Machado] trying to get a little over-aggressive.”
Cano went to Nix at second, erasing Markakis. Casilla headed toward third. Nix threw to Youkilis who threw back to Nix before a return to the third baseman — who tagged Casilla out. Got it?
“Casilla did the right thing,” Youkilis said. “He couldn’t run on that ball. Robbie almost caught it in the air. Next thing you know, Nixy turned [toward third] … [Casilla] made a quick turn, he did a fake and I’m running after him and I make a tag and then I see Machado half way. I almost make the wrong throw.”
Youkilis flipped across to Overbay as Machado sprinted toward second.
“I was just trying to get into scoring position at that point with Jonesy coming up to hit,” said Machado, who admitted he was too aggressive on the play. “We were down by three. I should’ve stayed at first. In the heat of the moment, things that you don’t think about at the moment, just happen.”
The drama wasn’t over. Overbay had Machado in his line of vision. He said he immediately thought “oops” as he threw down to Cano at second.
“When I threw it I had no shot at throwing it to the side I wanted to because he was in that lane so I threw it to the right side and Robbie made a great play,” Overbay said. “When I threw it, I was like ‘Oh man, I just screwed this up.’ ”
But Cano made a good catch and tag and the Yankees had their first triple play since April 22, 2010 at Oakland — ironically with Sabathia on the mound — and their first at home since June 3, 1968 against the Twins.
“Let’s say we didn’t work on that in spring training,” Overbay said.
“That was like being a kid again,” Youkilis said. “It’s a job and it’s a grind at times and when stuff like that happens, you feel like you’re back playing Little League.”