The Blue Jays found themselves at the center of another head-spinning rules mess on Monday night, and this one handed the Red Sox a run that seemed to disappear almost as quickly as it appeared.
It all started in the top of the seventh with Boston on the corners and one out - at least, that’s what the actual situation was. The scoreboard, though, had plenty of people believing there were two outs. So when Ceddanne Rafaela lifted a fly ball to center fielder Brett Bateman, the runners kept moving as if the inning was over.
Bateman fired the ball to second baseman Josh Smith, who relayed to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at first. Guerrero stepped on the bag, and Nick Sogard never tagged up, which gave Toronto a double play and sent the Blue Jays off the field. That should have been the end of it.
Instead, the umpires huddled and the game stopped for 17 minutes while they sorted through a rule most fans will never see in action. The crew believed there might be a run on the play because Anthony Seigler had crossed the plate before Toronto completed the out at first. Under MLB Rule 5.09(c)(4), “if the third out of an inning is made during a play where an appeal out is also sustained on another runner, the defense can use the appeal decision to take the more advantageous out.”
That’s the so-called “fourth out rule,” and it only seems to show up when baseball wants to make everybody stare at each other in confusion. In theory, Toronto could have completed the out at first, then appealed at third and erased Seigler’s run. But the Blue Jays had already left the field and never made that appeal, so once Seigler scored before the out at first became official, the run counted.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider’s argument centered on home plate umpire Charlie Ramos. Schneider believed Ramos was waving off the run as Seigler came across, which made it look, in his view, like a routine double play and removed any reason for Toronto to think about an appeal.
Crew Chief Chris Guccione at least gave the live crowd something useful: he acknowledged that the umpires needed to call New York to get the ruling straightened out. But the decision still left the same uncomfortable feeling. A runner who left early ended up with a run, while the defense got dinged for making the play it thought had ended the inning.
The Red Sox did get that one run, and that was it. Toronto held on for a 2-1 win in a game with playoff implications, with the Blue Jays moving to 57-63 and the Red Sox dropping two games behind the New York Yankees for the top spot in the Wild Card chase.
For Toronto fans, the whole thing probably felt a little familiar.
Back in Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS, the Blue Jays were on the wrong end of another bizarre ruling. Aaron Sanchez threw to Shin-Soo Choo, Russell Martin tried to throw the ball back, and the ball hit Choo’s outstretched bat before bouncing up the third-base line. Home plate umpire Dale Scott immediately waved his arms and called time, declaring the ball dead, but Rougned Odor still scored the go-ahead run for Texas.
Toronto challenged the play and later protested the game, arguing that Choo’s bat should have been ruled interference and that Scott’s quick call for time meant the Blue Jays had given up on the play because there was no chance to make an out. The interference argument didn’t hold up, but the bigger issue was Scott killing the play so quickly. Toronto was right to be frustrated, even if there was nothing it could do about it then.
And just like Monday night, the Blue Jays survived the mess anyway. They answered that blown-up sequence with enough offense to beat the Rangers, and yes, that inning ended up being remembered for something much bigger on the Toronto side.
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