The Nationals entered Friday night’s contest against the Milwaukee Brewers having played 2,689 games since moving to D.C. in 2005. Only once in that entire span had the club turned a triple play, doing so July 29, 2016 while facing the San Francisco Giants.
They made it two Friday in the bottom of the seventh. Milwaukee had runners on first and second with no outs, putting Nationals reliever Carl Edwards Jr. in a bind as he attempted to keep the Washington in the game down 2-0. He then induced a groundball to third by Brewers shortstop Luis Urías and the defense did the rest.
According to Baseball Almanac, the Nationals turned the 729th triple play in MLB history and just the second this season after the Texas Rangers completed one on the Seattle Mariners April 20. Washington is the ninth team to record multiple triple plays since 2016.
The Nationals’ first triple play was historic as Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon combined to turn the first 3-3-5 triple play ever recorded in an MLB game.
As impressive as Friday’s play was, however, the Nationals went on to lose 7-0 in Milwaukee.