There have been hundreds of baseball games played at Polar Park since the gates first opened in 2021. Home runs have cleared the fences, pitchers have flirted with history and future major leaguers have passed through on their way to Boston.
Until Thursday night, though, the ballpark had never seen a triple play.
The Worcester Red Sox turned the first triple play in Polar Park history during an 8-7 victory over the Rochester Red Wings, pulling off one of baseball’s rarest defensive feats on a play that helped change the course of the game.
It was only the second triple play in the WooSox’s five-and-a-half-season history—and Nick Sogard, currently in Worcester on a rehab assignment from Boston, has now played a role in both.
The history-making play came in the top of the third inning with Worcester trailing, 1-0. Rochester had runners on first and second with nobody out when designated hitter Yohandy Morales hit a line drive toward shortstop.
With the runners in motion on a hit-and-run, Sogard leaped to make the catch for the first out, then flipped the ball to second baseman Tyler McDonough to double off the lead runner. McDonough threw to first baseman Mickey Gasper to complete the triple play.
Just like that, a potentially dangerous inning was over.
The WooSox immediately capitalized.
Worcester scored five runs in the bottom half of the inning, turning a one-run deficit into a 5-1 lead. McDonough and Braiden Ward opened the inning with singles before stealing third and second, respectively, with Ward recording his league-leading 39th stolen base of the season.
Sogard walked to load the bases, and two runs scored when Gasper’s fielder’s-choice ground ball resulted in an error by Rochester catcher Harry Ford. Later in the inning, after an intentional walk to Allan Castro loaded the bases again, Andrew Knizner delivered a three-run double down the left-field line.
Worcester added three more runs in the fourth inning, including two on a ground-rule double by Sogard, and then held off a late Rochester comeback.
Sogard finished 2-for-3 with a walk, two RBIs and two runs scored. McDonough also had two hits and scored twice, extending his hitting streak to seven games.
According to the WooSox, the franchise’s only other triple play came July 19, 2023, on the road against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Bobby Dalbec started that around-the-horn triple play at third base, throwing to Sogard at second before Stephen Scott completed the play at first.
Sogard is the only player involved in both triple plays in WooSox history.
Triple plays require a nearly perfect combination of circumstances: at least two runners on base, no outs and a batted ball that gives the defense an opportunity to record three outs before runners can return safely to their bases or advance. Even in a sport built around thousands of games and hundreds of thousands of pitches each year, they remain a genuine baseball rarity.
Thursday’s version was made possible by the runners being in motion when Morales lined the ball to Sogard, leaving both too far from their bases to get back in time.
The triple play was the centerpiece of a night that extended Worcester’s recent surge. The WooSox have won four consecutive games and eight of their last 10, improving to 44-42 overall and 8-7 in the second half.
Rochester entered the series with the best overall record in the International League but dropped each of the first three games at Polar Park.
Osvaldo Berrios made a spot start for Worcester and allowed one run in three innings. Tyler Uberstine earned the victory after allowing one run on one hit over three innings.
Rochester made things interesting late, scoring two runs against Tyler Samaniego and three against Alec Gamboa. Worcester escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning when Gasper made a defensive play at first, and Gamboa stranded two more runners in the ninth before ending the game with a strikeout.
The WooSox and Red Wings continue their six-game series Friday night at Polar Park.
Whatever happens over the remainder of the weekend, though, Thursday’s crowd saw something no previous Polar Park crowd had witnessed — and something the WooSox themselves had managed only once before.
Have a story tip, community concern, or insight to share? Email Editor Charlene Arsenault at carsenault@theworcesterguardian.org.
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