Triple Play On A Line Drive
Peter Beratta from Syracuse, NY asks:
Runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. A line drive is hit to the 1st basemen who catches it in the air, steps on 1st to force that runner out, and then throws the ball to the shortstop, who is on 2nd base. The shortstop catches the ball before the runner on 2nd gets back to the base. The umpire ruled the runner out at first and the runner safe at 2nd because he wasn't tagged by the shortstop. Is the force on the runner at 2nd off when the first basemen stepped on 1st, first, before going to 2nd base?
Since the fielder caught the line drive on the fly, stepped on first before the runner from first retouched it, and the threw to second which was touched before the runner retouched it, all three of them should be out. Even though the first baseman stepped on first beforew throwing to second it does not remove a force because the runner from second if forced to return to second because the line drive was caught. There is no need to tag the runner returning to second.
Answered by: Jonathan Bravo
Keywords: Runners