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TORONTO — The top of the seventh inning of Monday’s Red Sox-Blue Jays game started normally enough, with Anthony Seigler and Connor Wong hitting back-to-back singles off Simeon Woods Richardson to lead off the inning and threaten a 2-0 Toronto lead. The chaos began when leadoff man Nick Sogard ripped a 105 mph liner in the direction of first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Guerrero came close to catching Sogard’s low rocket on the right side of the infield, but instead trapped it and tossed the ball to second base to nab Wong on a force play for the first out of the inning. The problem? Many — including the official scorer, at least for a few seconds — thought Guerrero had caught the ball, then doubled Seigler off second base for the second out. The Rogers Centre scoreboard showed two outs as Ceddanne Rafaela stepped to the plate, but Sogard remained at first. With runners on the corners, Rafaela lifted a shallow fly ball to center field where Toronto’s Brett Bateman caught it easily. Both runners broke on contact and the Jays picked Sogard off first as Seigler crossed the plate.
At first, it looked like a run-of-the-mill 8-4-3 double play that punished the Red Sox for not knowing the outs. But as Toronto cleared the field, the umpiring crew got together with managers Chad Tracy and John Schneider for long conversations. More than 15 minutes — and a league-involved “rules check” later — it was ruled that Seigler, in fact, had scored.
How? By the “apparent fourth out” rule, a little-known development that momentarily helped the Red Sox in an eventual 2-1 loss.
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“I don’t know that I’ve seen it personally,” Tracy said. “They’re very rare. But we saw one tonight.”
Crew chief Chris Guccione, who made two long announcements to a sellout crowd, explained it to a pool reporter from Toronto after the game. You can watch a replay of the play here.
“Both Boston runners, thinking there were two outs, just took off. When the second out was made, now we have two runners that have failed to return and tag up correctly,” Guccione said. “At that time, the guy from third (Seigler) had crossed home plate, and the guy that was at first (Sogard) 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,” Guccione continued. “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? Well, in this case, being a time play, the runner crossed before the out was made.”
Guccione cited Page 51 of this year’s MLB rulebook — and Rule 5.09(c)(3), which notes that “appeal plays may require an umpire to recognize an apparent fourth out.” A call with league officials in New York confirmed the ruling as reliever Jovani Moran warmed up for the Red Sox.
“In order for the run not to score, Toronto would have had to make the appeal at third base before the infielders left the infield,” Guccione explained. “Once they left the infield, then at that point, the run scores, and we’re where we’re at. In this situation, we got together as a crew and realized what had happened.”
Tracy said he had heard of such a play before. Some of his players learned about it for the first time as umpires explained it on the field.
“I didn’t know what was happening,” Seigler said. “Never seen it. There’s never been a situation like that.”
The Red Sox failed to capitalize on late chances against relievers Tyler Rogers and Louis Varland, so the controversial play did not impact the result. Still, it was the rare case of multiple players making mental mistakes on the same play and the club still benefiting.
“We kinda got a break there,” Tracy said. “We got fortunate.”
Tracy, Sogard and Seigler all said they were initially under the impression that there was one out in the inning after Guerrero’s play on Sogard’s ball. The scoreboard, then, was a source of confusion. NESN cameras caught the outs total changing from “2″ to “1″ midway through the play during Rafaela’s at-bat. During the game, Blue Jays officials approached reporters in the press box to note that Toronto does not control the scoreboard and that, because of a new rule change this year, the electronics in center field were controlled by MLB and linked to the official Gameday system.
“We’ve got to know there’s one out regardless of what’s on the board or not,” Tracy said. “It was a very weird situation where both sides seemed to be confused on the outs.”
On third base, Seigler checked with coach Chad Epperson, who told him there was one out, but then second-guessed things when he looked up at the board.
“The ball was hit, I looked up as it was going to the outfield and I looked at the scoreboard, coincidentally,” Seigler said. “I saw two outs so I just took off.”
Sogard had a similar experience at first.
“For me, my personal routine is that I check the scoreboard between every pitch. But the scoreboard has been wrong dozens of times in my career and I’ve known the outs,” he said.
Both players took responsibility after the game.
“No excuse. No excuse there. It’s unacceptable,” said Seigler. ”I’ve just got to know how many outs there were in that situation."
Added Sogard: “That’s a weird one. Gotta know the outs. That’s where it starts. No excuse there. You’ve got to know the outs and that’s it.”
If Seigler had tagged and scored the normal way on a sacrifice fly, Sogard would have likely scampered to second to put the tying run on base for Wilyer Abreu. That didn’t happen, though, and instead the result was a sacrifice fly and RBI for Rafaela paired with an 8-4-3 double play.
“I take full responsibility because we could have been in a better situation,” Seigler said. “We still could have gotten that run and produced off of that. So, that’s on me right there.”
More Red Sox coverage
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