Baltimore Orioles: Looking Back at Miguel Tejada’s Triple-Double Day in 2005

The Baltimore Orioles have had many iconic moments in the team’s 119-year franchise history.

One of those iconic Baltimore Orioles moments happened 15 years ago on June 1.

The moment belonged to shortstop Miguel Tejada, the highly decorated shortstop who played in Baltimore for 5 seasons out of his 16-year career.

Prior to joining the Orioles, he was a member of the Oakland Athletics and won an AL-MVP with them in 2002. Luckily for the O’s, the A’s granted him free agency and the O’s snapped him up for the 2004 season. The O’s later traded him to the Astros for a plethora of young players.

Tejada had plenty of outstanding games and earned MVP votes in four of his five years with the O’s. The game on June 1, 2005 was one worth remembering.

On this day 15 years ago, the Orioles were playing the Red Sox in a night game at Fenway. Both teams were fighting for the top of the AL East, with the O’s in the lead with a 32-30 record over the Red Sox 28-24.

Tejada was batting third, ahead of Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro. Sidney Ponson was on the mound that day. Tim Wakefield pitched for the Red Sox.

Tejada had a day.

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In the 1st inning, he hit a double to left field. Unfortunately, no one was on base, and Sosa followed up with a pop out. In the 3rd, he hit a no-doubter home run to deep left field. Again, no one was on. But, Sosa followed him with his very own home run to left field, too.

Then, in the 5th, Tejada hit another double – this time to centerfield. And, again, no one was on for him to earn RBIs. In the 6th, he could not knock in Melvin Mora who was able to earn an RBI off of David Newhan.

The flyout in the 6th was his only out in five at-bats. In his final at-bat, Tejada hit another double – this time a ground-rule double, as this third double of the day. Palmeiro moved him up on a sac fly, and B.J. Surhoff helped him cross the plate with his own sac fly.

By the time the game was over, Tejada had a home run and three doubles going 4-5 on the day. Unfortunately, with all of those hits, he only earned one RBI off of his solo home run. Ten total bases is a notable record for a nine-inning game.

The most doubles hit in one game is four, and 40 modern-era players have done it. The most recent Oriole to hit four doubles in one game is Albert Belle who did it twice in 1999. The most recent MLB player to do it Adam Frazier of the Phillies, who did it on July 1, 2019.

Even with Tejada’s limited RBI on the day, the Orioles won the game on June 1, 2005 by a score of 9-3. The O’s had 11 hits and four of those belonged to Tejada.