Three outs in an inning or four?

[PDX Twin]

I guess with the Nationals and the Pirates having the seasons that they are, anything is possible. But this bizarre double/triple play with one out already (involving old friend Ehire Adrianza) is crazy. Something I've never seen or heard of, even though I have actually read the rule book (many years ago):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/30/nationals-pirates-controversial-play/

[wsnydes]

I was reading about this earlier this morning and was confounded by the same thing.  I'm still not sure that I completely understand.

Baseball wackiness at its finest.

[ashbury]

That play came up on the SABR discussion list.  Apparently the Nationals are not alone in messing up the sequence.  If I understood correctly, no team has ever successfully used the "fourth out" situation to erase a run from scoring.  Twins official scorer and occasional TD poster Stew Thornley wrote this:

I heard from Jason Lee, the official scorer in Washington today, about a
missed chance by Washington to negate a run.  (Thanks also to John
Fredlund for an email on it.)

In the top of the fifth, Suwinski was on third and Park on second with
one out.  Hayes lined out to Bell at first.  Both runners had broken for
the next bases.  Bell threw to Adrianza at third, who missed a tag on
Hayes sliding in.  Adrianza then tagged Park, who was ruled out (doubled
off second).  Adrianza also stepped on third but apparently did not
indicate that he was also appealing that Suwinski hadn’t tagged.  I see
there was a review for a rules check (to confirm that Suwinski scored
since he crossed the plate before the doubling off of Park was
completed?)

So there is still no documented example of a fourth out in the majors.

[ashbury]

Here's an article with a historical bent that Stew wrote a year or so ago.

https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-elusive-fourth-out-what-teams-dont-know-will-bite-them/