White Sox third baseman Tyler Saladino had a memorable defensive inning

As the old baseball joke goes, Chicago White Sox third baseman Tyler Saladino tied a long-standing record by being involved in all three outs in the second inning on Saturday.

The joke will always work too, because it's a record that has been tied thousands of times over the years, but will never be broken. That much is guaranteed.

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The reason it's worth mentioning this time though has nothing to do with jokes or records, it's the manner in which Saladino recorded those outs. Each play was different from the others. Each play had a certain level of difficultly attached. And, above all else, each out was completed in impressive fashion.

The inning started with Anthony Rizzo hitting a pop foul down the left-field line that Saladino pursued a long way before making the catch. It wasn't Rizzo-esque in its beauty or difficulty, but it was still a nice play that got his memorable inning off to a nice start.

With Jorge Soler due up next, Saladino positioned himself close to the third base line expecting the Cubs slugger to pull the baseball. It's a good thing he did. Saladino needed every split second available just to stop the baseball's momentum and recover. The two-hop smash handcuffed him a bit and ended up deflecting off the heel of his glove, but he snatched it from the air cleanly and made a strong throw to record the second out.

Two down, one to go.

As highlighted in the video atop the page, Saladino saved the best for last, making a simply sensational diving grab to rob the Cubs Chris Denorfia of a sure single.

There's a reason it's called the hot corner. That baseball was already by Saladino by the time he reached out, but he still managed to reel it in.

Saladino would go on to have a mostly uneventful game from that point on, at least in the field. At the plate, he finished 1-for-4 with a run scored. The White Sox would go on to lose 6-3 to the red-hot Cubs.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813