Rare Double Play Makes The Baseball Storyteller Search For Answers

The Boston Red Sox opened their Spring Training season with an exhibition game vs. Northeastern University on Friday, February 20th. This traditional exhibition game marks the unofficial start of the Boston Red Sox Grapefruit League schedule of games and has so for the past two decades or so. I tuned in Friday to watch the game, see who was playing for the Sox, and to see how Northeastern’s hitters would fare against Boston’s pro pitching. The game was close early before the Red Sox piled on run after run in their eventual 18-3 exhibition win.

During the top of the 4th inning, Northeastern had a runner on first with less than 2 outs. Noah Song, a name I remember from years passed, was on the mound for the Red Sox. A ball was hit to the right side (between 2nd and 1st), and first baseman Nathan Hickey snagged the grounder and tagged the runner at first attempting to advance to 2nd. Then, he turned a fired a strike to Noah Song (Pitcher) who was covering 1st base for a double play. In all my years of watching baseball, I have never seen this type of double play.

Typically, if the first baseman grabs a ground ball with a runner on first, he will throw to a fielder covering 2nd base for a force out. Then, the fielder at 2nd will then turn to throw the ball to first base attempting to complete the double play, likely to the pitcher covering. I have seen infielders other than first basemen tag a runner in the basepath, then fire to 1st base in an attempt to complete double play. But, never, I mean never, not live, not on TV, never have I seen a first basemen snag a ground ball, tag the runner attempting to advance, then throw the ball to first to complete a double play.

And so I ask, how do you score that? A tag play in the scorebook is 3U if the first baseman tags a runner out. If a first basemen fields a ground ball and throws to the pitcher covering first base, then play records as 3-1 or 3-1 PO, for putout. So, would you score this play 3U-3-1? If you have the answer, let me know so I can learn.