A call is explained to the Red Sox's bench. Credit: NESN
By Tyler Lauletta on

Fans tuning in for Monday night’s game between the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays got an unexpected deep dive into the MLB rulebook after a bizarre sequence that ended the seventh inning.

The confusion began with the Red Sox having runners on first and second with no outs and second baseman Nick Sogard at the plate. Sogard hit a ground ball that was thrown to second for the force out, leaving runners on the corners with one out in the inning.

But at some point, the scoreboard was showing two outs rather than one, and when Ceddanne Rafaela flied out to center as the next batter in the box, players on both teams seemed convinced it was the third out of the inning — Toronto pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson jogged in towards the dugout, and both of Boston’s runners on base had gone on contact rather than waiting to potentially tag up on the play.

Eventually, the Blue Jays found their senses in the confusion and threw the ball to first base, getting a force out on Sogard for what was the actual third out of the inning. But the scene was far from settled.

What followed was a 16-minute break in the action as all parties involved attempted to figure out how to litigate what had just happened on the field.

In the toughest spot was crew chief Chris Guccione, who was caught between both managers and the review taking place in New York while doing his best to explain the situation to the crowd.

“Okay, the rule we have here is,” Guccione began — an inauspicious start to a rules explanation if we’ve ever heard one. “We have a time play, meaning when the third out was made at first base with the runner not tagging up, the runner that was on third base also did not tag, but crossed home plate before the third out was made at first base. So that is a time play. We are going to New York to do a rules check.”

After conferring with New York, Guccione came back with a clear answer, at least when it came to where the game stood.

“After calling New York and getting it all straightened out, the run is going to score,” he said. “End of the inning. Two runs for Toronto, one run for Boston.”

So the run counted, despite the runner not tagging up, because he crossed the plate before the actual final out of the inning was recorded at first.

NESN’s Dave O’Brien and Lou Merloni did their best to explain the situation on the broadcast, but they too were understandably a bit turned around.

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. The run counted, and maybe could not have counted if the Blue Jays had appealed to the umpire saying the run had scored, but the Blue Jays had lost their chance to appeal when they left the field. This is still a bit confusing, as the Blue Jays didn’t appeal the run being scored while jogging off the field because, at the time, it didn’t look like the run had been scored; home plate umpire Charlie Ramos appeared to have waved off the run. But again, progress.

Still confused? Don’t worry, so was Toronto manager John Schneider.

“Going forward, when that play happens again in the next 100 years, if it’s us, we will record the lead out at third,” Schneider concluded.

Thankfully for everyone involved in this mess, the run that Boston was awarded ultimately did not matter, as the Blue Jays held on to win 2–1.

About Tyler Lauletta

Tyler is a editorial contributor at Awful Announcing, with previous stops at Sports Illustrated and Business Insider during his career covering sports in digital media. He is, begrudgingly, a Truster of the Process and general Philly sports sicko.

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