MLB Game Descends Into Chaos as Broken Scoreboard Leads to 15-Minute Delay and Bizarre Run

Monday night at Rogers Centre saw umpires huddle by the dugouts in the middle of the seventh inning. Players, officials, and the fans of the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays went confused as crew chief Chris Guccione had to call New York to sort things out before the game could continue. 

“A broken scoreboard in Toronto caused the Red Sox and Blue Jays to lose track of the outs in the seventh inning,” Jomboy Media wrote on their X post. “Umpires called for a rules check on a ‘time play’, then allowed the runner on third to score despite not having tagged up due to the ‘fourth out rule.’”

The bizarre incident started during Nick Sogard’s at-bat in the seventh with Connor Wong on first and Anthony Seigler on second.

The Red Sox were trailing 2-0 with no outs in that inning. Sogard hit a ground ball off starter Simeon Woods Richardson, a hard, low liner to Vladimir Guerrero Jr at first base. The ball hit the ground, but Vladdy dived and trapped it to throw it to shortstop Andrés Giménez at second base for the first out of the inning, allowing Sogard to reach first and Seigler to advance to third. It ended up with a tag out for Wong. 

But the scoreboard showed two outs. And the announcement also mentioned it as a double play. 

The game continued without anyone pointing it out, and Ceddanne Rafaela appeared in the batter’s box.

He hit a sacrifice fly on the very next pitch. As Brett Bateman gloved it, confusion arose among the players. Both teams weren’t sure if it was the second or the third out of the inning, causing a more than 15-minute pause for the game. The fielder even managed to throw the ball in time as Guerrero Jr tagged the bag to throw Sogard out at first. 

The umpiring crew was joined by the managers from both teams to clear things up. Even the players fell in to participate in the conversation, with Max Scherzer trying to share his opinion from the Blue Jays’ dugout. And the biggest confusion was whether Seigler had made it home before the out was made at first base. 

In the meantime, the scoreboard went from 2 to 1 out.

After discussing with managers and among themselves, the umpires reached a verdict. 

“What we have here is we have a time play,” Guccione was heard on the mic. “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 we’re going to New York to do a rules check.”

With boos from the stands in the background, the umps checked with New York.

Guccione then revealed that the runner had indeed reached home before the out at first. And it resulted in a run for Boston, reducing the gap to 2-1 with the inning ending there. 

According to the MLB Rule 5.09(c)(4):

“Appeal plays may require an umpire to recognize an apparent ‘fourth out.’ If the third out is made during a play in which an appeal play is sustained on another runner, the appeal play decision takes precedence in determining the out. If there is more than one appeal during a play that ends a half-inning, the defense may elect to take the out that gives it the advantage. For the purpose of this rule, the defensive team has ‘left the field’ when the pitcher and all infielders have left fair territory on their way to the bench or Clubhouse.”

While Rafaela and Sogard simply took off, Seigler safely reached home. And according to the umpire, the Toronto players were also heading off to the dugout without making the tag. And since they had crossed the third base line, they couldn’t appeal to third base. 

Blue Jays skipper John Schneider addressed the matter with reporters afrer the game, “What I was told was the rule is the rule. It’s a timing play. If the run scores from third no matter what he did – tagging up or not – before the out is recorded at first, the run counts. Now if we had just thrown the ball to third instead of first, obviously a different story.”

Schneider continued that neither did the Red Sox challenge the play, nor did his team, because they had already run off the field and couldn’t appeal the play by throwing the ball to third base. But he assured that if something similar happens in the next 100 years, they will record the out at third.

If they were allowed an appeal, it could have ended in a fourth out and prevented the run for the Red Sox. But this wasn’t the first fourth-out controversy in MLB. 

Major League Baseball has seen the same thing before

A 2022 matchup between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals witnessed something very similar.

With just one out in the inning, Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a line drive to first with two runners on second and third. Josh Bell made the catch for the Nats and threw it over to Ehire Adrianza at third. While Hoy Park was tagged out, Jack Suwinski reached home, earning the go-ahead run. Washington left the field without appealing, and the Pirates upped the score. 

Monday’s game was a perfect re-enactment of that play.

What should have been a perfect end to the inning for the Blue Jays ended up with an unresolved scoring play for Boston. But the Red Sox failed to capitalize on it as they eventually dropped the game 2-1. And that was their third defeat in a row after a 9-game winning streak. 

While the game was a routine matchup between two MLB teams, the 15-minute delay and the complexity of the rule took center stage. And Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy found it fortunate for the team.

He has never seen a fourth out in his career but feels like his players should have been aware of the number of outs in the inning. 

“We’ve got to know there’s one out, regardless of what’s on the board or not,” he noted. “Yes, it was a very weird situation where players on both sides appeared to be confused on the outs.”

But John Schneider wasn’t happy with the decision. 

“They told me that all of my players were across the third-base line before [home-plate umpire] Charlie [Ramos] waves off the run. Which I 100% disagree with,” the Blue Jays manager added. “I don’t know if Vlad is that fast after he got the ball at first. We weren’t given the opportunity to appeal to third.”

The rule might be obscure, but it taught an important lesson. Performing well on the field isn’t enough in Major League Baseball. Players have to be aware of the balls, outs, and overall situation to secure an edge in the game.

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