SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Robbie Ray said the first inning of the Giants’ 5-3 win over the Chicago Cubs was “enough chaos for spring training in one game.” “Chaos” is an apt adjective for a frame that saw San Francisco (2-0) play through a fire alarm, then turning a 4-3-6-5 triple play — that started on a base hit.
As the saying goes, you never know what you’ll see at the ballpark.
“It’s spring training for both sides. We’re working through stuff, and I guess it’s not just both sides: It’s the facilities, too,” said rookie manager Tony Vitello.
The chaos began moments after the first pitch. Following Ray’s fourth pitch to leadoff batter Matt Shaw, the fire alarm at Scottsdale Stadium began to blare. Lights started flashing, and an ominous prerecorded message demanded that fans head for the exits.
The Giants and Cubs stayed on the field, unsure of how to proceed. Some fans left as instructed, while others took unsure, half-hearted steps towards the concourse. There turned out to be no emergency as the alarms were triggered by a fan smoking in a restroom.
Ray thought both teams would wait out the alarm, but the first-base umpire told Ray to continue pitching. So, with flashing lights and confused fans, Ray fired away. Bench coach Jayce Tingler called around looking for an update, and Vitello said “It would’ve been nice if (Ray) knew it’s fully OK” before the left-hander continued pitching.
“That was inexplicable,” Vitello said. “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 is in the stands and you probably assume — I’ve been a condo guy my whole career, so when the fire alarm goes off, you just assume somebody pulled it or something like that.”
Said Ray: “I’m looking up into the stands and they’re funneling people out of the stands. I’m like, ‘We’re just going to play through this?’ It kind of rattled me a little bit.”
Ray walked Shaw, then walked Alex Bregman to put runners on first and second with no outs. That set the stage for Seiya Suzuki — and even more madness.
On Ray’s 18th and final pitch of the afternoon, Suzuki flipped a bloop single into shallow right-center field. Second baseman Luis Arráez retrieved the ball and fired home. First baseman Rafael Devers, seeing Suzuki bolt for second, cut off Arráez’s throw. Devers then fired to Adames, who tagged out Suzuki for the first out.
As Adames applied the tag, Bregman found himself in no man’s land between second and third. Shaw planted himself at third base, and Bregman had nowhere to go, so he half-heartedly jogged to third base. Shaw and Bregman both stood on the bag, and when Adames tagged both, Bregman was called out since he was the trail runner.
Two outs might’ve been all that the Giants got, but then Shaw wandered off the base and started taking off his gear, appearing to think the play was dead. Instead, Chapman retrieved the ball from Adames and tagged Shaw, completing a bizarre triple play and, by extension, a bizarre inning.
“I just saw him come off the base,” Chapman said. “It was common sense at that point. I knew he was safe, so I just tagged him. There was a lot going on.”
“I didn’t really see the triple play,” said Cubs starter Colin Rea. “I was confused about the fire drill. And then there’s three outs, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what just happened, but here we go.’”
Ray had a childlike smile as he walked off the mound, raising his left fist in celebration, and Vitello imagines that the team will joke about that inning all spring. The 34-year-old Ray ended his afternoon with an appropriately odd final line (one inning, one hit, two walks, no runs, three batters faced), and it’s possible that this was the first triple play in recorded history that started with a hit.
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“That whole inning was interesting with the alarm going and everything. Then, the blooper, 40 people on third base. I don’t know what happened,” Adames said. “That’s the beauty of baseball, I guess. Every day, you see something new. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the game. Every day, something new is going to happen.”
Lee shows off arm in right field debut
Jung Hoo Lee has one of the best arms in baseball, and in his first Cactus League game as a right fielder, Lee sent a message to any baserunners interested in testing him.
In the top of the sixth, the Cubs’ Chas McCormick skied a fly ball toward Lee into foul territory. When Lee tracked the ball down, Chicago’s Kane Kepley bolted from third base and tried to score. Lee fired an 85.5 mph one-hopper to catcher Eric Haase, who tagged Kepley to complete the inning-ending double play.
“He’s been working really hard defensively, and I saw a little bit of video last year, but everybody over here has just been kind of on me about, ‘Hey, he’s really good over there,’” Vitello said of Lee, who also had a single. “Not that I’ve ever doubted that, but he backed it up right there.”
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