Alejandro Kirk's first career triple was every bit as glorious as you'd think

Things have not been going all that smoothly for the Toronto Blue Jays. There's no denying that fact. The club made a solid effort on Saturday against the division rival Rays, but fell just short; losing 3-2 in a game that was lost by Yariel Rodriguez and kept close by a surprisingly competent bullpen.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. set a new career-high in hits by going 3-for-5 and notching his 189th, 190th and 191st hits of the season. He continues to be on an absolute tear in the second half of this season, which is one of the top storylines in all of baseball as the regular season winds down.

But there's also Alejandro Kirk, who started behind the plate in Saturday evening's contest. He went 1-for-4 with an RBI and a strikeout. His lone base hit was, of all things, a triple. Yes, you read that right. Kirk motored around the bases for 14.28 seconds before landing on third base on what was the very first triple of his big league career.

The stout backstop currently sports a Sprint Speed in the fourth percentile (per Baseball Savant), which means he's one of the slowest runners in all of baseball. Followers of the Blue Jays don't need that number to know that he's not exactly winning footraces anytime soon.

Alejandro Kirk finally gets that first career triple

It only took until his 428th career big league game, but Kirk's finally got that triple under his belt. All-Star Game? Yep. Silver Slugger? Sure. Triple? Up until Saturday, he couldn't claim that one. On a ball that was horribly misplayed by Rays right fielder Josh Lowe, Kirk was able to scoot around the bases and get a three-bagger. Lowe was not charged with an error because he never physically touched the ball.

Instead, it skipped right past him after one of the most ridiculous looking attempts at catching a ball as you'll ever see. Unfortunately, there's no real footage of Kirk's 5-foot-8 frame scuttling around the bases, but we'll toss a clip of the play below so you can witness it for yourself.

With that triple, Kirk successfully extended his current hitting streak to 14 games, which is something that should not be shrugged off. He has had one hell of a time replicating his offensive breakout in the 2022 season, slowly declining further and further at the plate, but he's looked much better since this year's All-Star break.

In 45 games since the break, Kirk is hitting .259 with a .698 OPS. Not exactly eye-popping numbers, but they're improvements over what he did in the first half, which is hit .234 with a .631 OPS.

After the game, Blue Jays manager John Schneider told reporters that the Jays should've automatically been awarded a win since Kirk did the impossible and recorded that triple. "I feel like if Kirky hits a triple you should win the game automatically. You know, that should be a new rule."

It's hard to deny that fact, but the truth of the matter is that this is probably going to be the only three-base hit Kirk records in his career.

Now it's time for him to start working on that first career stolen base.