The baseball world collectively yelled “WHAT?!” last night after a truly wild ruling in the Red Sox-Blue Jays game in Toronto. It was a play that nobody, and I mean *nobody*, seemed to understand. Seriously, what the heck did we all just witness?
Baserunning Blunders and a Scoreboard Nightmare
Let’s set the scene for this absolute madness. The Red Sox had runners on the corners with only one out. Ceddanne Rafaela absolutely mashed a ball to center field. It was deep enough, textbook sac fly territory, to score Anthony Siegler from third. That is, if Siegler (and Nick Sogard, who was at first) actually knew how many outs there were. The scoreboard at the SkyDome (yeah, I said it, you can’t stop me) was flashing two outs. Apparently, the entire field was fooled.
The confusion reportedly stemmed from the previous play, where Vlad Guerrero Jr. snagged a screamer right at first base for a force out. The ball hit the ground, so maybe there was some confusion about whether it was a double play or not. Honestly, I don’t care. Regardless of what the scoreboard showed, for a baserunner in that situation to forget the out count? That’s just flat-out inexcusable. Shame on the base coaches too. Even if the Blue Jays thought there were two outs, that’s just bad, bad baseball. Period. You’d think, “Okay, boneheaded play, Sox get robbed of a run, inning over, right?”
The “Fourth Out” Rule Blew Everyone’s Minds
Wrong. So incredibly wrong. What followed was a 15-minute deliberation by the umpires, led by Chris Guccione, that revealed a rule I’m pretty sure most of us have never heard of: the “fourth out” rule.
Here’s the lowdown: Toronto actually made the third out at first base after Sogard didn’t tag up. But here’s the absolute kicker: that out was made *after* Siegler had already crossed home plate. This whole mess turned into a wild matter of timing and appealing, bringing this bizarre “fourth out” rule into play. For those of us who’ve watched baseball for as long as we can remember, this was a jaw-dropper. Basically, a fourth out is a legal out the defense can make *after* three outs have occurred, usually an appeal play. If that appeal out happens *before* a run scores, it can negate the run. But in this Toronto game, the run had already scored when the appeal was made.
So, yeah. A “fourth out” is a real thing. It’s a super deep-cut rule from the baseball rulebook, and it just dropped into a live game and totally baffled everyone watching. Keep your head on a swivel out there, folks. Even when you think you’ve seen it all, baseball can always throw something wild your way that makes you question everything you thought you knew about the game.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Over the Monster.
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