As Reds outfielder Stuart Fairchild approached third base to complete his fifth-inning triple against the Marlins on Tuesday, he committed a cardinal sin for baseball players: he ran through his third base coach’s stop sign.
However, thanks to Miami’s dreadful defense, he was rewarded with that rarest of MLB sequences: a Little League home run.
The Marlins opted for an inventive style of defense in trying to keep Fairchild from dashing around the horn, though it proved to be ineffective. What appeared at contact to be a bloop single turned into a triple after right fielder Jesús Sánchez took an inefficient attack angle. From there, a relay throw home that would make a tee ball coach blush finished the job and allowed Fairchild the chance to touch ’em all.
