Dodgers go all in, Yankees come up short as MLB trade deadline passes
Bob Nightengale breaks down why the Dodgers won the MLB trade deadline after landing Tarik Skubal, plus other winners and losers.
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Baseball had a rule for the mess in Toronto on Monday night. Of course, it did.
Nick Sogard took off from first like there were two outs. There was one. The scoreboard at Rogers Centre said two. What happened next took 17 minutes to untangle, involved all the umpires, the umpires back in New York and one visibly unhappy Toronto Blue Jays manager, and ended with the Boston Red Sox scoring a run on a double-play that ended the inning.
And the Blue Jays won anyway.
Here’s how it went sideways.
Anthony Seigler singled to start the seventh. Connor Wong singled behind him. Sogard grounded into a force at second, which put him on first. Seigler on third, one out.
Ceddane Rafaela then hit a fly ball to center. Brett Bateman caught it. Seigler tagged and jogged home. Sogard, meanwhile, was well on his way to second, because he was playing a different scenario than anyone else. Bateman threw to Josh Smith, who threw to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at first. Sogard was doubled off standing up.
Three outs. Inning over and no damage done, presumably.
Or so it would have seemed. The umpires stopped everything for a rules check, The call on the field got overturned. Boston scored.
The explanation is less crazy than the scene suggested. A run comes off the board when the third out is a force play, or the batter thrown out at first, or a runner ahead of the scorer misses the base. Sogard was none of those things. He was behind Seigler, and Seigler had already touched the plate.
Toronto had one option, but the rulebook.
A defense is allowed to appeal a baserunning mistake by some other runner even after the third out is recorded. Baseball calls this a “fourth out,” which is just too much really. If the Blue Jays could show Seigler left third a beat early on the tag, that appeal takes precedence, and the run disappeared. But they can only do it before the pitcher and all four infielders cross into foul territory.
That’s actually in the rulebook, Rule 5.09(c)(4).
For what it is worth, none of it decided anything. Sonny Gray gave up two in the sixth and took the loss. Simeon Woods Richardson got the win, Louis Varland the save, Charles McAdoo homered.
And baseball’s rulebook stays unbeaten.
Blue Jays vs. Red Sox highlights
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