RJ Hamster
SI:AM | The Weirdest Baseball Play You’ll See All…
DAN GARTLAND
Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I think I finally understand what happened in the seventh inning in Toronto last night.
In today’s SI:AM:
🧀 Breer’s notes from Packers camp
📉 Inside the Dodgers’ struggles
Try to wrap your head around this
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Last night’s Red Sox-Blue Jays game in Toronto featured a scenario so confusing and uncommon that it took a whopping 16 minutes to figure out the proper ruling.
It all started with runners on first and second and nobody out in the top of the seventh, when Boston’s Nick Sogard hit a ball sharply to first base. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. gloved it just above the dirt and then threw to second. Because the ball hit the ground before Guerrero caught it, the play was ruled a force out at second. But it was announced in the press box as a double play and the scoreboard in the stadium displayed two outs.
Confusing enough, right? It’s about to get worse.
The next batter was Ceddanne Rafaela. Sogard was on first base and Anthony Seigler was on third after advancing from second on the previous play. Rafaela hit a lazy fly ball to center, and both Sogard and Seigler started running on contact. Toronto center fielder Brett Bateman caught the ball and lobbed it back toward the infield as nearly everyone on the field started heading to the dugouts. Some Blue Jays players appeared to recognize that the flyout was only the second out of the inning, though. Eventually, the ball made its way back to Guerrero at first, where he stepped on the bag to double up Sogard for the third out.
(You can watch a longer version of the sequence here.)
The whole thing took an eternity to sort out. The umpires first deliberated among themselves, then sought clarification from the league replay office in New York. In the end, it was determined that Seigler crossed the plate before Sogard was doubled up at first, so the Red Sox were awarded one run. The Blue Jays weren’t able to appeal to third base to prevent the run from scoring because all nine fielders had already left the field.
“Both Boston runners, thinking there were two outs, just took off,” crew chief Chris Guccione explained to a pool reporter after the game. “When the second out was made, now we have two runners who have failed to return and tag up correctly. At that time, the guy from third had crossed home plate and the guy who was at first was standing at second. Toronto knew he hadn’t tagged up and threw to first base to make the third out. Well, that’s a time play, meaning it’s not a force play. If it’s a force play, the run does not score automatically. If it’s a time play—meaning, ‘Was the out made before or after the runner crossed home plate?’—in this case, the runner crossed before the appeal play was made [at first]. In this play, it’s what you call an apparent fourth out.”
There are a couple of things that make this even more bizarre. For one, the scoreboard operator evidently realized their mistake just a moment too late. You can see the scoreboard change from two outs to one while Rafaela’s fly ball is in the air. The other is that there’s at least one person in the ballpark who can’t say this is the first time they’ve seen a play like this. The so-called “fourth out” is exceedingly rare, having last occurred at the MLB level in 2022 and ’09, according to MLB.com. But it also happened in a Class A game between the Lansing Lugnuts and Fort Wayne TinCaps on July 30, 2016. Lansing’s manager in that game? Current Blue Jays manager John Schneider.
It’s amazing that so many professional baseball players can forget the rules simultaneously. Sure, the play at first earlier in the inning was somewhat confusing, and the scoreboard operator’s error made it worse, but you just have to think about it for a second. If it was a double play, why was Seigler allowed to advance from second to third? If Sogard had lined out to first and the second out was recorded with the throw to second, then Seigler and Sogard would both be out. Where did they think the two outs came from? They weren’t the only ones who were fooled, either. Toronto pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson and catcher Brandon Valenzuela started walking off the field immediately after Bateman caught the ball in center.
If the Red Sox had reacted properly in this situation, they might have gotten more out of the inning. Instead, they gave the Blue Jays a free out and went on to lose their third straight game.
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👀 The top five …
… things I saw last night (and tonight in Australia):
5. Australian soccer player Zane Helweh’s impressive individual effort to score his first professional goal.
4. Jac Caglianone’s scorching home run off of Tarik Skubal. It left the bat at 110.8 mph and traveled 410 feet. (Skubal gave up three runs on four hits in five innings, but the Dodgers came back to win.)
3. Angels right fielder Wade Meckler’s perfectly timed jump to rob a home run. (Meckler’s reaction was great, too.)
2. A nice diving catch by Phillies right fielder Derek Hill.
1. An even better diving catch by Tommy Edman.
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