Erik Boland: Fourth-out call continues to amaze players, managers
Umpire Chris Guccione, center, announces a rules check during an umpire review in the seventh inning of a game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox in Toronto, on Aug. 10, 2026. Credit: AP/Sammy Kogan
TORONTO — Last Monday night at Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays helped begin the cooling-off process of what had been a scorching-hot Red Sox team with a 2-1 victory.
The final score was far from the most memorable part of the game.
No, what stood out from the 2-hour, 48-minute game was the application of one of the most arcane rules in the dense 192-page Major League Baseball rulebook — many sections of which are written in legalese — a sequence that gave the Red Sox a run after three outs had been recorded and caused plenty of discussion among players and managers in the 28 clubhouses not involved in the play.
Including the Yankees’.
“Never heard of it before,” third baseman Ryan McMahon said with a laugh Friday before the Yankees opened a three-game series against the Blue Jays.
He was not alone.
The “it” was a little-known and seldom-applied part of Rule 5.09(c)(4) that actually has in his explanation the phrase: “fourth out.”
With the Blue Jays leading 2-0 and one out in the top of the seventh on Monday, the Red Sox had runners on first and third. Ceddanne Rafaela hit a lazy fly ball to center and the runners, Anthony Seigler at third and Nick Sogard at first, took off on contact without tagging up. (The scoreboard in center incorrectly showed two outs at the time, and that may have played a role here.)
After centerfielder Brett Bateman made the catch, he threw to second baseman Josh Smith, who threw to first to double off Sogard, seemingly keeping the Blue Jays ahead 2-0.
The crew chief for the series, Chris Guccione, went to the replay center in New York to initiate a review to check if Seigler crossed the plate before the runner was doubled off at first.
Guccione referred to it as “a time play” because a tag-up is not a force play, as there is no trail runner “forcing” the lead runner to advance.
Because Seigler, who replays showed fully understood the rule in real time as he chatted with teammates during the nearly 15-minute delay, touched home before Sogard was doubled off, the run counted, making it 2-1.
The Blue Jays easily could have negated the run. They could have simply doubled Seigler off third for the third out by throwing to third instead of first. Or the Blue Jays, who ran off the field, could have remained on the field after recording the third out at first base and appealed that Seigler left early, thereby executing “the fourth out.”
Part of Rule 5.09(c)(4) reads that when an appeal play occurs on an inning-ending play, “the appeal play decision takes precedence in determining the out.”
Aaron Boone, who played 12 years in the big leagues, worked for ESPN for eight years as a broadcaster and is in his ninth season managing the Yankees, said it was a rule he was only vaguely familiar with.
“We actually went over that rule a couple of springs ago. I think that’s the only time I’ve come across it, is actually reviewing it,” Boone said before Friday’s game. “I don’t think I’ve experienced it on the field of play.”
The Yankees were off on Monday and Boone, via a text from pitching coach Matt Blake, became aware of the bizarre sequence on his way back from an appearance.
“Blake was texting me ‘the Red Sox just got doubled off,’ and he’s describing the play and [said], ‘Now the umpires are conferring,’ ” Boone said. “And it sprung in my head, ‘Oh, it’s the fourth-out situation.’ It triggered it for me.”
The rule helped the Yankees in July 1989 when with runners on first and third and one out in the eighth, Wayne Tolleson popped up a suicide-squeeze bunt. After the catch was made, the ball was thrown to first for the third out, but Mike Pagliarulo already had crossed the plate on the suicide squeeze, and because the Brewers did not appeal at third, Pagliarulo's run counted. Although plate umpire Larry Barnett pointed to the plate and to the press box, neither Yankees manager Dallas Green nor Brewers manager Tom Trebelhorn was aware the run had scored until after the game (a 4-1 game became a 5-1 game).
In fact, Newsday sportswriter Joe Donnelly sent in the story as a 4-1 final score and had to call the copy desk after the game to change the score.
Among the players in the clubhouse during media availability before Friday’s game, only Jose Caballero was aware of the “fourth-out” scenario, having experienced it as a young player in his native Panama years ago. Bench coach Brad Ausmus, who played 18 big-league seasons, recalled it coming up in his second-to-last season in 2009 while playing for Joe Torre’s Dodgers. Luis Rojas, a baseball lifer whose father, Felipe Alou, played 17 years in the majors and managed another 14, also was familiar with the rule.
What percentage of his players does Boone think knew of the rule?
“Probably low, because I don’t think that’s one of the ones [rules] we rolled through with them that year we reviewed that [as coaches],” he said before smiling. “Now I’d say it’s a lot more. That was a popular play.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
