Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and the Blue Jays nearly pulled off a triple play, settling for a slick double play instead
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Put the ball in play, good things happen ... sometimes.
In the third inning of the Blue Jays' 5-0 win over the Orioles on Monday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Austin Wynns hit a liner to shortstop Lourdes Gurriel Jr. This presented a problem for the runners, Renato Núñez (on second base) and John Andreoli (on first base), as neither could advance, caught up in no-man's land on a potential lineout.
Gurriel didn't catch it, though, and it set in action a sequence that resulted in a double play as Gurriel flipped it to second baseman Richard Ureña, who threw to Rowdy Tellez -- who then fired across the diamond and came oh so close to nabbing Nunez at third.
Nunez was ruled safe, and Orioles manager Buck Showalter came out for a replay review (which was upheld). During the review, Gurriel couldn't help but laugh at the weirdness:
"I think he was wondering if he had it and dropped it," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons told MLB.com's Gregor Chisholm after the game regarding home-plate umpire Larry Vanover on that grounder to Gurriel. "With a low throw, we get three, so it was kind of neat. First and second, no outs, that's big. If they end up getting a knock there, or something goes haywire, you're looking at a different score. Big, big play. Gurriel is playing a nice short for us."