The Rarest Individual Feat In Baseball: Asdrubal Cabrera’s Unassisted Triple-Play

It occurs less frequently than a perfect game, or hitting four home runs in single game. It has only been done 14 times in modern baseball history.

“It” is the unassisted triple-play, and during last night’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indian Second baseman Asdrúbal Cabrera pulled off an inning’s worth of defensive work–by himself.

Details, information and video after the jump!

In the fifth inning of a doubleheader at Progressive Park, Cabrera dove to catch a Lyle Overbay liner, stepped on second base before Kevin Mench returned, and then tagged Marco Scutaro who had just passed second base, to complete the unassisted triple play.

If Cabrara made only one mistake on his lucky night it was not keeping the ball.

“He flipped it into the stands and right as he did cried out, ‘Oh, no!’ ” first-base coach and Venezuelan’s interpreter Luis Rivera said.

To make Cabrera’s feat even more strange – during a span of over 65 seasons (June 1927 to September 1992), there was only one unassisted triple play in the major leagues, completed by Ron Hansen in 1968. Hansen was in attendance to witness Cabrera’s feat.

Baseball Tonight Analysis of Cabrera’s Unassisted Triple Play

Video of Cabrera’s Unassisted Triple Play