Four-out rule baffled Blue Jays, but Max Scherzer and John Schneider had seen it before

As baffled Blue Jays stood in the dugout on Monday and waited for Major League Baseball to make a ruling on an oddball play, Max Scherzer already knew what was going to happen.

On April 12, 2009, while he was with the Arizona Diamondbacks, umpires invoked the rare four-out rule and awarded the Los Angeles Dodgers a run.

“It’s the craziest play I’ve ever seen and now I have seen it twice,” the 42-year-old pitcher said Tuesday before Toronto took on Boston at Rogers Centre in the second of four games. “I knew the outcome.”

The confluence of craziness about which the baseball world is talking occurred in the top of the seventh inning. With runners on first and second and none out, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. snagged a hard-hit line drive that bounced right before he caught it and fired to second base to force out the runner.

That left runners on first and third bases with one out. But for whatever reason, the scoreboard, which is operated by MLB, errantly showed two outs.

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The next batter lofted an easy fly ball to centre and Brett Bateman caught it and threw to first for a double play, because the runner there had taken off for second without tagging up. At the same time, the man on third proceeded to home. Both believed the inning was over.

This is where things got really screwy. Boston’s interim manager, Chad Tracy, argued that the runner, Anthony Seigler, had crossed home plate before the third out was completed.

Confusion reigned. The crew of umpires, seemingly as mixed up as everyone else, called MLB in New York for a consultation. After a delay of 16 minutes the decision was announced. The runner scored on what was still called a double play.

How a player scores on what was officially called a sacrifice fly double play is anybody’s guess.

Had Bateman thrown to third base instead of first, the Blue Jays could have appealed the play because Seigler also had not tagged up. In that instance the run would have been negated. In this case they couldn’t appeal because they had left the field.

Suddenly what was a 2-0 lead for Toronto became 2-1. In the end the Blue Jays held on for the one-run victory.

“I’d never seen anything like it,” pitcher Shane Bieber said. “My first thought was that somebody had messed up.”

It was also a first for infielder Ernie Clement.

“The weirdest part was how long it took,” he said. “It took forever.”

John Schneider, the Toronto manager, had the same thing happen in 2016 when he was the field boss for the Lansing (Mich.) Lugnuts of the Midwest League.

“I literally have no memory of that,” Schneider said. “I try to block out those days.”

Schneider said the play on Monday was so unusual that it caught everyone on both teams off guard.

“The umpires did a good job of explaining it to the best of their ability,” the manager said. “At the end of the day they tried to get it right.

“They told me it was a stupid rule and didn’t make sense.”

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Pitcher Patrick Corbin, now in his 14th big-league season, said it had never happened in a game where he has played.

“It’s just an odd play,” he said.

Scherzer was animated as he chatted about in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse.

He said home plate umpire Charlie Ramos initially made a motion to indicate the run in the seventh inning had not counted.

“We’re not arguing the call,” Scherzer said. “We are arguing about the umpires’ actions. But it was the right call. A rule is a rule.”

As he stood on the dugout steps on Monday and watched the scene unfold, Scherzer realized the throw should have gone to third base rather than first.

“I said, ‘Oh no, oh no,’” Scherzer recalled. “I hoped nobody on our team would say anything about it and that maybe the umpires would forget.”

Yesavage undergoes knee surgery, out week-to-week

Blue Jays pitcher Trey Yesavage has undergone surgery to repair the meniscus in his left knee. Schneider said the 23-year-old right-hander is expected to be out week-to-week.

“We are not ruling him out for this year,” he said.

On Aug. 4, Yesavage was removed from a game in Houston after he reported feeling a pinching in his leg. In 18 starts he has a 5-5 record and 3.65 earned run average.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed the sequence of events that led to the confusion of the seventh-inning in Monday’s game. That has been updated.