In the midst of a slump following their meteoric hot streak, the Boston Red Sox were the beneficiaries of one of the most under-utilized rules in Major League Baseball.
The Red Sox won 32 of 37 games going into Monday night’s game against the languishing Toronto Blue Jays, having lost their last two games of a series against the Athletics at home over the weekend.
Down 2-0 in the top of the seventh inning, Red Sox infielder Anthony Siegler and catcher Connor Wong had hit singles putting them on second and first, respectively.
In the ensuing at-bat, Nick Sogard hit a hard grounder to Toronto first-baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Guerrero tossed the ball to second base to get Wong out and a play to first hadn’t been made.
With Siegler at third base and Sogard at first base, the scoreboard in Toronto erroneously read two outs.
After Red Sox outfielder Cedanne Rafaela hit a fly ball to center field, all the runners began moving – incorrectly believing there were two outs. If the scoreboard was correct, and there was only one out, then the runners would have tagged up before moving.
A bizarre fourth-out rule led to the Boston Red Sox scoring a run due to a lack of appeal from the Toronto Blue Jays during a game between the two AL East rivals on Monday
A pop fly by Cedanne Rafaela led to runners moving without tagging up, despite there only being one out, due to a scoreboard error at Rogers Centre
Instead, all the runners on the basepath began moving and when Blue Jays centerfielder Brett Bateman made the catch to get Rafaela out, all the Toronto fielders began making their way to the dugout.
Normally, that would be where the story ends and this wouldn’t turn into an issue. However, what followed was a 17-minute delay that resulted in the Blue Jays stepping up to the plate having just surrendered a run.
After Bateman made the second out, he threw the ball into the infield. A Toronto fielder then threw the ball to first to get Sogard out for his failure to tag.
However, in the time between the Bateman catch and the throw to first, Siegler crossed home plate.
Under MLB rules, because Siegler crossed home plate without tagging up, the Blue Jays would need to appeal for Siegler to be the so-called ‘fourth out’ in order to prevent the run.
Rules further state that an appeal must be made before the defensive team – in this case, the Blue Jays – completely leaves the field of play. Toronto did not make an appeal in time, therefore, umpires awarded a run to the Red Sox.
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy admitted, ‘We kind of got a break there.’
On the opposite side, Blue Jays manager John Schneider claimed plate umpire Charlie Ramos ‘waved off the run’ and never gave the team the chance to appeal at third base.
The Blue Jays’ lack of appeal meant that Anthony Seigler’s run counted
Join the discussion
Should MLB change its rules to prevent scoreboard errors from impacting games so dramatically?
‘After consulting with MLB, they told me that all of my players were across the third base line before Charlie waved off the run, which I 100% disagree with,’ Schneider said.
‘I don’t know if [Vladimir Guerrero Jr.] is that fast after he got the ball at first.’
‘We felt like it was our obligation to correct the error for not scoring the run originally,’ crew chief Chris Guccione said after the game.
‘The rule is the rule. … So if the run scores from third, no matter what he did tagging up, or not, before the out is recorded at first, the run counts,’ Schneider said.
‘Now, if we had just thrown the ball to third instead of first, obviously different story.’
The luck was short-lived for Boston as the Red Sox lost their third straight game.
