Fire Alarm Triple Play: Baseball's Wildest Spring Moment

Spring training is supposed to ease players back into baseball, but nobody told the Giants and Cubs that Sunday's game would include emergency evacuations and the most confusing triple play in recent memory.

Four pitches into Giants pitcher Robbie Ray's debut, fire alarms started screaming at Scottsdale Stadium in Arizona. Someone had been smoking in a bathroom, triggering automated announcements ordering fans to evacuate. Dozens headed for exits as sirens blared on loop, but the umpire told players to keep playing.

"I was like, 'We're just going to play through this?'" Ray said after the Giants' 4-2 victory. "It kind of rattled me a little bit."

The distraction worked. Ray gave up walks to the first two batters and a single to the third, loading the bases with nobody out. That's when spring training magic happened.

Giants second baseman Luis Arraez fielded a flare to right field and threw toward home. Ray assumed the runner would score, so he yelled for first baseman Rafael Devers to cut the throw and fire to second base instead. Devers tagged out the runner trying to stretch his single into a double.

But the chaos was just beginning. The lead runner had retreated to third instead of scoring. The second runner kept going and got caught in a rundown between second and third, leading to the second out.

Then came the confusion that sealed the triple play. The runner on third apparently thought the inning was over and stepped off the bag. Third baseman Matt Chapman caught him wandering and tagged him out.

"Well, there were a lot of distractions going on," Chapman said. "The fire alarm going off, people vacating the stadium. Just trying to figure out if that was real or not."

The Bright Side

Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman took responsibility with humor and grace. "I felt like I got a good read off the bat, and I should've ran a little more with my head up," he said with a smile.

Giants shortstop Willy Adames summed up the absurdity perfectly. "I don't even know what happened. There were like three guys at third base. That's the beauty of baseball, I guess. Every day you just see something new."

Manager Tony Vitello said stadium personnel confirmed everything was safe, though he understood why players were distracted with family in the stands. Ray would have preferred a pause in play but managed to pitch through sirens, smoke, and baserunning bedlam to escape the inning unscathed.

Sometimes the best moments in sports happen when nothing goes according to plan and everyone remembers to laugh about it.