The big league Chicago Cubs haven’t turned a triple play in over 20 years, last doing so on May 10, 1997 against the Giants.
I can’t find video, but, from the box score recap at Baseball-Reference, it looks like it was a fly ball to center, a runner tried to tag up from second base and was thrown out at third, and then the runner at first tried to be sneaky and take second, and he too was thrown out.
The Cubs actually had a really good shot at a triple play just last Friday, with slow runners on first and second, and a hard Yadier Molina shot to Kris Bryant at third – the problem was that it took his momentum just slightly away from third base, so by the time he went to third, he elected to play it safe and throw to first for a double play.
Triple plays are flukey like that, requiring the perfect confluence of circumstances on the bases, a batted ball to just the right spot at just the right pace, and then perfect execution (or more luck/bad baserunning). It’s funny: the Cubs haven’t had one in 20 years, and yet the White Sox had three last season alone.
Although the big league team hasn’t had one in a long time, you can no longer say that about their highest minor league affiliate. That’s because the AAA Iowa Cubs turned a triple play just last night:
Turn 3️⃣ pic.twitter.com/DMCN3PAPiA
— Iowa Cubs (@IowaCubs) June 6, 2017
There was that perfect confluence of circumstance, batted ball, and execution – in this case, you also had some runners who weren’t sure if the ball was caught or if it bounced. Not entirely their fault, but well done by Elliot Soto and Chesny Young to complete the play.
Much like the big league team, that was the first triple play for the I-Cubs in a long time:
The I-Cubs just turned a triple play to escape the second inning!
It's Iowa's first triple play turned since August 9, 2008.
— IowaCubsGameDay (@IowaCubsGameDay) June 6, 2017