SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Matt Chapman has won five Gold Gloves, including two of the platinum variety — a distinction bestowed on the most valuable defensive player in the league. But there’s one defensive feat that the San Francisco Giants third baseman still hopes to check off his list before he calls it a career.
He’s hit into a triple play. He’d never taken part in turning one, though.
It happened Sunday afternoon in the first inning of a game that doesn’t count and wasn’t close to anything Chapman, or anyone else for that matter, envisioned. When he applied a tag to inattentive Chicago Cubs base runner Matt Shaw, it was the final piece to one of the most bizarre triple plays in major-league history. Giants left-hander Robbie Ray faced three batters, allowed two walks and a single, yet somehow all of that turned into a 1-2-3 inning.
Adding to the wackiness: Most of the inning took place amid sirens and recorded evacuation instructions because a smoke alarm had been triggered by a fan who was smoking a cigarette in one of the restrooms.
Somebody must tell new Giants manager Tony Vitello, who is new to this whole spring training thing: This is definitely not standard operating procedure in the Cactus League.
“I’m looking up in the stands, and they’re funneling people out,” said Ray, who walked Shaw and then was distracted while trying to throw strikes to Alex Bregman. “I’m like, ‘We’re just gonna play through this?’ So it kind of rattled me a little bit. But, yeah, it’s enough chaos for spring training in one game.”
When the Doordash includes an extra side of guacamole that you didn’t pay for.
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— Andrew Baggarly (@andrewbaggarly.bsky.social) February 22, 2026 at 3:39 PM
Crew chief Bill Miller had an earpiece and was in communication with stadium operations, who informed him that there was no danger. So Ray continued to pitch. The recorded announcements ended after several minutes. Then the Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki hit a blooper that fell in right field beyond the reach of second baseman Luis Arráez. Arráez fielded it cleanly off one bounce and heaved the ball to the infield, where first baseman Rafael Devers cut it off.
Ray saw Suzuki headed for second base. He did not see what was happening behind him: two Cubs base runners converging on third base because Bregman didn’t stop running and Shaw did.
“I thought he clearly would’ve gone home,” Ray said of Shaw. “And so I was yelling at (Devers), ‘Two, two, two!’ to go to second base. And then I realized there was a guy stuck between second and third, and I looked at third, and the guys are just standing there. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s perfect. I’m gonna get two outs.’
“And then ended up getting three.”
Shortstop Willy Adames took Devers’ accurate throw and applied a tag to Suzuki and then, with half the ballpark yelling at him, turned toward third to see the two Cubs base runners. Adames responded with veteran savvy, running to third instead of making a throw, and then showed even more good sense by tagging both runners as they stood on the base. The third-base umpire emphatically pointed at Bregman, the trail runner, and called him out, then pointed to Shaw and called him safe.
Either Shaw thought the inning was over, or, more likely, he thought a timeout had been granted, when he left third base and took two steps toward base coach Quintin Berry. By this time, Adames had handed the baseball to Chapman so he could throw it back to the mound. Then Chapman realized that a strange play was about to get even stranger.
“I mean, it was just kind of common sense at that point,” Chapman said. “He’s walking away, and I knew he was safe, so I just tagged him. … That’s one way to kick spring off.”
Jon Miller, who has a special gift for describing bad baserunning, called Matt Shaw’s decision to stray off third base “a boneheaded rookie mistake.” Yep, that pretty much sums it up.
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— Andrew Baggarly (@andrewbaggarly.bsky.social) February 22, 2026 at 12:28 PM
The triple play was scored 4-3-6-5, and sure, it probably doesn’t count as a bucket-list accomplishment for Chapman, given it came in spring training. But it was unlike any triple play that has been turned in regular-season major-league history. The Society for American Baseball Research keeps a database of all triple plays. None have begun with a base hit.
It’s hard to fathom that a pitcher has ever had an inning quite like Ray’s experience. He didn’t retire a batter, and yet three were retired.
“Everybody was just like, ‘Hey, way to get out of it. Way to put up a zero,’” Ray said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I did a lot.’”
“That’s a glitch in the Matrix,” Chapman said.
Vitello pointed out that the alarms were especially distracting to Ray and Chapman because their families were in the stands.
“That was inexplicable,” Vitello said. “I mean, I feel bad for Robbie. Now we can kind of laugh about it, but Chappy said the same thing I was thinking: You’re trying to play, but your family’s in the stands, and you probably assume … I’ve been a condo guy pretty much my whole career, and when the fire alarm goes off, you just assume somebody pulled it or something like that. But yeah, that was kind of a dicey situation, and then for it to end the way that it did, it’ll be something we’ll probably joke about all spring training.”
Jung Hoo Lee also provided an encouraging sign that he can be an asset in right field, making a running catch in foul territory followed by a strong throw to catcher Eric Haase that was in time to nab Kane Kepley.
The strange triple play might have revealed a few important truths for the Giants. When you are depending on a first-year manager who has no professional experience, it helps to have players on your roster who are smart, who have been well-coached, and who have (mostly) seen it all. That includes Devers, who is still new to first base but is showing more and more familiarity and confidence in his positioning and decision-making.
“Those four players involved are all pretty heady and pretty smart,” Vitello said. “Everybody said you have two coaches on the left side of the infield, Chappie and Willy, and they both have some differences, too, that they play off of. They illustrated it there on that play.”
Those infielders knew exactly what to do, even though it was the type of play that nobody had ever experienced before.
“That whole inning was really interesting with the alarm, and then the blooper, and 40 people on third base,” Adames said. “I don’t know what happened. That’s the beauty of baseball. Every day you see something new.”
