A Tale of Two Touches - Last Time By in TB

Thursday's Red Sox-Rays game featured two retouch mistakes on the bases, resulting in a successful appeal for the first, while the second error was fixed thanks to the runner returning to the missed base and touching it.

In the bottom of the 4th inning, Rays batter Randy Arozarena, with runner R1 Brandon Lowe on first base, flied out to right fielder Hunter Renfroe as Lowe ran to, past, and back from second base. The Red Sox appealed that Lowe had failed to retouch second base after passing it and while retreating toward first base, resulting in an inning-ending double play as the appeal was affirmed by 2B Umpire Phil Cuzzi.

In the top of the 9th inning, the play nearly repeated itself with Boston batter Hunter Renfroe's fly out to center field and baserunner R1 Rafael Devers failing to retouch second base on his way back to first to tag up, but unfortunately for Tampa Bay, center fielder Kevin Kiermaier threw wildly to first base, the overthrow allowing Devers to advance to second base and, in doing so, legally touch second, effectively erasing his prior touch error under baseball's last time by principle.

For more information about base touching and retouching rule OBR 5.09(c)(2), as well as the MLB Umpire Manual's official interpretation for passing a base, see our June 13 article on Rangers runner Adolis Garcia's improper base running in Los Angeles that resulted in an appealed out.

Related Post: Last Time By Touch Failure Costs Texas on Base Appeal (6/13/21).

Video as follows:

Alternate Link: Comparing two failures to retouch second base at Tropicana Field (BOS/CCS)