"I was thinking groundball and double play, then we turned the triple play," Yabu said after the Giants' 7-3, 13-inning loss. "Unbelievable. I had never seen one. We usually see triple plays where they catch a line drive. It's the first time I saw a groundball triple play."
The crowd of 37,178 jumped to its feet for a long ovation. The Padres hit into their first triple play since May 5, 2005, against St. Louis.
The Giants hadn't turned a triple play at home since Oct. 3, 1980, against San Diego at Candlestick Park. This was the first one for San Francisco at its 9-year-old waterfront ballpark and the sixth total in the city by either team
- four at Candlestick and one at Seals Stadium. The Giants have turned seven triple plays since moving West in 1958.
Yabu struck out one in three perfect innings and became the second Japanese pitcher to take part in a triple play along with Hideo Nomo in 1996
- to which Yabu said, "Oh really? No. 2? That's good."
"When it was hit, I thought no but then I saw the quickness to the bag and then I saw the first relay and I thought,
'Yeah, it could happen,'" Padres manager Bud Black said. "When the ball was in flight to second I thought it could happen. Didn't want it to. It was bang-bang."
Cleveland's Asdrubal Cabrera turned an unassisted triple play for Cleveland on May 12.
