Matt McLain of the Reds, a true rookie, picked up the third triple of his career Saturday afternoon in an 8-4 victory over St. Louis. That was just his 24th game. Over 162 games, that would work out to about 20 triples in a season.

Another way to look at his triples success is by his rate. The major league rate for triples per plate appearance (PA) is 0.0036. McLain, with 114 PA, has a rate of 0.026, seven times higher. Coming into today, only two other players had a rate of at least 0.02, Kevin Kiermaier and Ke’Bryan Hayes (min 100 PA). So if McLain managed 650 PA in a season, we might expect 17 triples from him. Since 1998, there have only been eight player seasons where a batter recorded at least 17 triples. The last was in 2008, when Jose Reyes had 19.