The Week and Year in Pitcher Triples

Maybe, when you were younger, you observed a pitcher triple in the wild. These days they’re mostly found in captivity, and they spend a lot of time sleeping and they don’t like to breed.

Looking over the history of baseball, two trends emerge, related to one another. Pitcher triples are going away. Relative to a century ago, a pitcher triple now is almost ten times less likely. It’s half as likely as it was in the 70s and 80s. Pitchers, overall, are getting worse at hitting, relative to the rest of the league, because pitchers are more specialized than ever. They’re also taking fewer chances on the basepaths, as measured by the ratio of doubles to triples. Some of that last bit could additionally be explained by recent emphasis on defense and differently-aligned ballparks, but it’s clear that pitchers are getting worse, and they’re getting more conservative. So it’s not like anyone should expect a pitcher-triple rebound.

Let’s bring this back to current events. Through last season, the lowest pitcher-triple total in a year was three, first achieved in 1991, and achieved again in 2010. Last year, there were ten pitcher triples, the highest total since 2005. And this year? As of Friday, September 19, there had been zero pitcher triples. As of dinner time on the west coast on Saturday, September 20, there had been zero pitcher triples. There have since been three pitcher triples. All of the year’s pitcher triples have come in the last five days, off the bats of Andrew Cashner, Jake Arrieta, and Clayton Kershaw. Arrieta and Kershaw both delivered on Wednesday. Let us reflect, as humans do.

Andrew Cashner pitcher triple

• Date: September 20
• Against: Yusmeiro Petit
• Location: Petco Park
• Time: 11.4 seconds

How It Happened

A triple is better than a double, but one of the things about triples is that, in order for them to exist, they often need for the ball to be hit worse. What Cashner actually hit was a fairly ordinary groundball. This, then, was all about placement, as he spotted the grounder just down the left-field line. You’ll note it’s pretty uncommon for someone to triple to left field, because third base is basically a border stop on the way into left field, but as the baseball rolled into the corner, Gregor Blanco was anticipating a bounce that didn’t happen. So he paused before resuming his pursuit, and that gave Cashner the necessary extra fraction of time. The play wasn’t close, and Cashner got himself within 90 feet of scoring with one out.

How He Ran

Cashner was booking it the whole time. The Padres, like every other baseball team, employ a third-base coach. Cashner either forgot, or didn’t care, or was feuding.

How He Reacted

Wait, no, that’s the creepy screenshot. Here’s the right screenshot.

Cashner celebrated emphatically when he arrived, and he didn’t deviate much from his intense and terrifying game face. But as shown here, he did almost smirk, and he awkwardly pointed double pistols to the dugout, like real hitters do. A lot of teams have little hand signals they flash to one another when they deliver a big hit. Cashner is seemingly aware of them, but doesn’t really practice them, because, you know.

Miscellaneous

About that 11.4 seconds — I timed randomly-selected recent triples by Jorge Soler and Norichika Aoki at 11.8 seconds. Despite the beard, Cashner’s an athlete, and that’s why he’s been used by the Padres as a pinch-runner four times since last season. A year ago he stole two bases, which is an extremely uncommon feat for any pitcher in this day and age. Since last year Cashner has also been used by the Padres twice as a pinch-hitter. That’s a bit more troubling. On account of this being the Padres, after Cashner’s one-out triple above, he didn’t score.

Jake Arrieta pitcher triple

• Date: September 24
• Against: John Lackey
• Location: Wrigley Field
• Time: 12.2 seconds

How It Happened

Not only do we have a pitcher triple — we have a pitcher triple in an 0-and-2 count. Lackey didn’t even really miss his target, but Arrieta protected and threw his hands at the ball, and he laced a liner to right-center that split the outfielders. The Cardinals didn’t do anything fundamentally wrong, but Oscar Taveras doesn’t run that well and he took a suboptimal angle, and the ball rested right up against the wall, which gave Arrieta the time he needed. I don’t know why Arrieta kept going, since there were two outs and he’s a pitcher for Pete’s sake, but he beat the close relay.

How He Ran

Arrieta, obviously, made it to third safely, and any human, obviously, needs some time to accelerate, but Arrieta wasn’t exactly sprinting out of the box, and he probably didn’t realize he had a shot at a triple until he was something like halfway down to first. If he’d been going the whole time, maybe he would’ve been safe by a greater margin, but if he’d been going the whole time, maybe he would’ve pulled his hamstring, so the ends can justify the means for all I care.

How He Reacted

People who aren’t used to sprinting get winded after sprinting. A good way to disguise that is to pretend to fix something on your shoe. Arrieta could’ve elected to be fired up, because he drove home a pair of runners against a division rival. On the other hand, he’s a Cub in September, so what is he really playing for?

Miscellaneous

Arrieta’s two-out, two-run triple broke a scoreless tie. It followed an intentional walk of Logan Watkins, who I swear I’ve never heard of before. By Win Probability Added, it was the fifth-biggest hit by a pitcher all season long, and pretty close to being second. In the brief glimpse we get of John Lackey in the video highlight, he isn’t swearing.

Clayton Kershaw pitcher triple

• Date: September 24
• Against: Tim Hudson
• Location: Dodger Stadium
• Time: 12.5 seconds

(Skip ahead to 0:39)

How It Happened

Cashner’s triple was an example of a triple that had to be hit less hard than another hit. Kershaw’s triple is an example of a triple that had to be hit more hard than another hit. Kershaw essentially hit a single up the middle. It’s recorded on FanGraphs as a line drive, but it’s recorded on Baseball-Reference as a groundball. It looks like a single you’ve seen a million times, but then everything’s different, owing to the speed of the ball off the bat, and to the alignment of the outfielders. The first time the ball bounced, it was off the infield dirt, to the side of second base. A few seconds later the ball reached the outfield fence, because the Giants had left a ton of space vacant, not expecting Kershaw to put the ball where he did. It really couldn’t have been placed any better, and wouldn’t you know it, but for the second time in less than a week, Gregor Blanco was retrieving a baseball hit by a pitcher who was getting an easy triple. For the second time in less than a week, Pablo Sandoval was manning third base when a pitcher reached it more or less unchallenged. It was a groundball, stand-up triple, hit up the middle, off the dirt.

How He Ran

Never a doubt in Kershaw’s mind. He didn’t look at the third-base coach, but he didn’t have to, because he was fully aware of what the baseball was doing out there between the outfielders. You can see Kershaw push off as he’s rounding second base, to really try to gun it. As with Arrieta’s triple, this one came with two outs, so maybe it wasn’t worth the injury risk, but it’s not like Kershaw is some delicate vase, and people run all the time without getting hurt. Remember the last time you went running? You sure didn’t get hurt! Unless you did. Probably at least one of you did, but many more than one of you have run recently, and few of you are big-league caliber athletes.

How He Reacted

Kershaw was winded, and he didn’t try to hide it. For a guy so well known for his intense, unwavering focus on game days, it’s rare to see Kershaw break character, yet he couldn’t help but smile when he saw his own teammates freaking out nearby. It wasn’t a big toothy grin, and Kershaw didn’t hold it for long, and he certainly didn’t try to show up his opponent, but for a few moments during a game in which he was playing, Clayton Kershaw didn’t look like he could kill you in cold blood, and so there were a few reasons this was out of the ordinary.

Miscellaneous

This season there have been three pitcher triples, and Clayton Kershaw has one of them. This season there have been two pitcher stolen bases, and Clayton Kershaw has one of them. Anthony Bass had a triple and a steal in 2012, but then you have to go back to Orlando Hernandez in 2006, so this isn’t an ordinary thing. Kershaw is also the greatest starting pitcher on the planet, so it’s not really fair for him to have positive offensive WAR. But if Clayton Kershaw were fair, he wouldn’t be Clayton Kershaw.