Rangers record a rare, rare triple play

ARLINGTON, TEXAS— Triple plays are rare enough to begin with. Jurickson Profar and the Texas Rangers turned one that was especially unusual Thursday night.

In fact, it had been more than a century since there was another one like it in the majors.

“It was an all-around headsup play by Profar,” Texas manager Jeff Banister said. “Very slow heartbeat in that moment.”

Profar started the defensive gem at third base and later homered to help the Rangers rally from an early five-run deficit for an 8-6 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

Texas pulled off the sixth triple play in franchise history in the fourth inning. With the bases loaded, David Fletcher hit a low liner toward third that Profar picked on a short hop. Playing near the bag, he stepped on third to force out Eric Young Jr. and then tagged Taylor Ward, who had stumbled off the base into foul territory. Profar then threw to second baseman Rougned Odor, who tagged Kole Calhoun between first and second.

“Every runner thought it was a line drive,” Profar said, “so that’s why we got the triple play.”

It was the majors’ first triple play without retiring the batter since 1912, when the Brooklyn Dodgers turned the trick against the Cincinnati Reds.

“Yeah, it was kind of confusing the way it happened,” Fletcher said. VOTTO TO DL: The Cincinnati Reds placed first baseman Joey Votto on the 10-day disabled list Friday with a right lower leg injury.

The all-star from Etobicoke was hit by a pitch from Ryan Madson in Washington on Aug. 4. In Cincinnati’s10 games since then, he missed four starts and two full games.

Gold Glove catcher Tucker Barnhart was in the Reds’ lineup for his first career start at first base for their game against San Francisco. Barnhart has made three career appearances at first base, all this season. BAD BREAK FOR BAUER: Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer, one of the leading candidates for the AL Cy Young Award, will be out four to six weeks because of a stress fracture in his right leg.

Bauer was hit by Jose Abreu's liner Saturday against the Chicago White Sox. He experienced soreness and swelling, and an MRI on Tuesday revealed the injury.

The right-hander is12-6 with a 2.22 ERA in 25 starts and is among the leaders in ERA, innings pitched and strikeouts.