When are two outs not a double play? On this quirky Red Sox-Rays play
The Rays beat the Red Sox 10-8 in 11 innings on Monday night in Boston, but had Tampa Bay lost, it would have been lamenting a missed opportunity.
In the fourth inning, the Rays had runners on first and second with no outs when Junior Caminero hit a pop-up on the infield. Caminero was ruled out on the infield fly rule, but Red Sox third baseman Marcelo Mayer missed the catch.
When the ball hit the ground, Yandy Díaz took off for third and Jonathan Aranda ran for second. Boston catcher Connor Wong threw to third base, but shortstop Trevor Story stepped on the bag. Díaz was safe because there wasn’t a force out on the play due to the infield fly rule.
Story threw to second baseman Kristian Campbell, who tagged Aranda before reaching second base and that was the second out on the play.
Even though the Red Sox got two outs on the play, it wasn’t a double play.
Here is more from the X account MLB Scoring Changes: “Third baseman Marcelo Mayer drops the ball, but the batter is still out. Both runners attempted to advance, and the runner from first is out on a tag, so that out goes 2-6-4, but since this would have been an error (an intervening misplay between two outs), this is not credited as a double play for Boston.”
