O's denied DP in odd rundown against Yanks

NEW YORK -- In the end, the Orioles were right. But it mattered little in the outcome of Baltimore's 7-3, 14-inning win over the Yankees.
Still, an unusual baseball rule came into play in Friday's game, though O's manager Buck Showalter lost his bid to get two outs via Rule 5.06b on a rundown when Giancarlo Stanton headed back to third base in the sixth inning.
Stanton, who singled to chase starter Kevin Gausman in the sixth, moved to second on Didi Gregorius' single and to third on Gary Sánchez's fielder's choice. Stanton got caught halfway between third and home on Neil Walker's grounder back to reliever Richard Bleier, starting a rundown.

Sanchez went to third, while Stanton raced back to the bag, running out of the basepath and eventually getting tagged by O's catcher Caleb Joseph in left field for the second out of the inning. Showalter came out and held up two fingers, arguing to crew chief Jerry Meals that the umpires should have also ruled out Sanchez to end the inning.
"[Third-base umpire Ron Kulpa] thought he abandoned the base by going past it. So, in his mind, there was never two guys on the bag," Showalter said of the reasoning behind the call. "'Because we tagged the right guys. We worked on that in the spring, about who was out and who wasn't out, and what you want to get the guys to do. I thought our guys did it perfect. I had a couple points that I thought made their points questionable, but it worked out."
It seems Showalter had a valid point.
"We were incorrect," said Meals, who concurred that Kulpa had misjudged the play. "Sanchez should have been out automatically for passing Stanton. Then, Stanton had the right to come back and touch third before being tagged, or be called out for abandoning his effort."
According to the official rule, a runner may be deemed to have passed a preceding (lead) runner based on his actions, or the actions of the lead runner. The official rule cites a play where a runner -- like Stanton -- is caught in a rundown and races back to third base. Before being tagged, the lead runner runs beyond third base into left field, with the trailing runner -- Sanchez -- now in front of him. As a result, the trailing runner is ruled out and third base is left unoccupied.
The call didn't factor into the game's outcome. After several minutes of Showalter stating his case, the ruling stood as just one out -- Stanton. Bleier retired pinch-hitter Ronald Torreyes, stranding Sanchez at third, to end the inning and preserve the Orioles' 3-2 lead.