It’s pretty incredible that in a game that has been around as long as baseball has, you can still see something brand new every so often.

During Thursday’s 7-6 loss in New York, Pete Crow-Armstrong did something that seemed innocuous at first but ended up as a one-of-a-kind play.

In the top of the 6th inning, Crow-Armstrong deposited a liner into the right-field corner and motored around to second base. As he was running between first and second, he removed his own helmet, slid into the bag and then utilized the helmet in his hand to keep himself safe while the tag was applied:

PCA took his own helmet off when running to second 😂 pic.twitter.com/FJdBPx9VOk

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) May 2, 2024

“I’ve never seen this,” a laughing Jim Deshaies said on the Marquee Sports Network broadcast.

It begs the question: Is that even a legal play? The initial call on the field was “safe” and it remained that way.

The actual rule indicates that Crow-Armstrong should have been called out. But it was such a rare play that it’s hard to blame anybody on the field for being caught off guard.

Crow-Armstrong was ultimately left stranded on second base to end the inning, so it didn’t matter much in the long run. His double drove in a run, making it a 5-2 Cubs lead at the time.

The Mets scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 6th inning to tie the game at 5.

The score stayed that way until the top of the 11th, when the Cubs plated a run on a Nick Madrigal double. In the bottom half of the frame, Francisco Lindor doubled home a pair of runs to give the Mets a walk-off victory.