Rare "four-out play" in baseball!???

[capnkirk]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Rare-four-out-play-helps-Dodgers-down-Diamondb?urn=mlb,155380

So, does this mean the umpires actually blew the call to start with? If the pitcher caught the fly ball and the runner on third never tagged up(according to the article "the runner on third base, the aforementioned Ethier, ran toward home on contact"), the umpires should have noticed this and the runner should have been called out at home.

[Shocker85]

Re: Rare "four-out play" in baseball!???

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Rare-four-out-play-helps-Dodgers-down-Diamondb?urn=mlb,155380

So, does this mean the umpires actually blew the call to start with? If the pitcher caught the fly ball and the runner on third never tagged up(according to the article "the runner on third base, the aforementioned Ethier, ran toward home on contact"), the umpires should have noticed this and the runner should have been called out at home.

No, the umpires did not "blow" the call. The runner coming from third is not automatically out because he left early. The umpires never assume the out and make the call when a runner leaves base early, the defense has to put him out by tagging him or appealing that he left early. Similar to a play where the baserunner misses a base - the defense has to appeal it to get the call.

If the tag had occurred before the runner crossed the plate the run would not have counted and no appeal at 3B necessary.

Oddities in baseball that you see once-in-a-while when you watch a lot of games.

--'85.

[SubGod22]

Odd, but it really does make sense.

Why would the runner be called out at home? Nobody did anything to make him be out.

Obviously this isn't something that comes up much and I can see how it would have been overlooked by the coaching staff. But the right call was made.

[RampageWSU]

That was aweeeeeessssooooommmmeeeee!

[jdmee]

An appeal should be clearly intended as an appeal, either by a verbal request by the player or an act that unmistakably indicates an appeal to the umpire. A player, inadvertently stepping on the base with a ball in his hand, would not constitute an appeal.

If I understand this correctly:

If the fielder would have held onto the ball and while running into the dugout stepped on third base, the run would have counted.

If the fielder would have held onto the ball and while running into the dugout, stopped and told the third base ump the runner failed to tag up and he was appealing the play, and then stepped on the bag, there would have been a 4th out and the run would not have scored.

[RoyalShock]

I think the player holding on to the ball and touching third would suffice as an unmistakable act, considering players don't normally carry the ball to the dugout.

[jdmee]

Not necessarily in the MLB, players take the ball all the time and throw it into the stands after an inning.