The New York Yankees lost a baserunner despite winning a challenge as an odd sequence took place during Game 4 of the ALCS on Tuesday.
Aaron Judge was on first with one out and Gary Sanchez up in the bottom of the fourth inning against the Houston Astros. Sanchez hit a fly ball to shallow right field that Judge misread. Judge rounded second thinking the ball was going to drop for a hit before realizing the ball had been caught for an out. Judge raced back to first to avoid the double play, but he was ruled out after Houston threw to the bag. That ended the inning — sort of.
Replay showed that Judge beat the throw back to first base, so the Yankees challenged the play. They won the challenge, putting Judge back at first. However, the Astros learned from the replay that Judge failed to tag second on his way back to first.
When the game resumed, Lance McCullers got set at the mound and was going to step off to appeal that Judge had missed tagging second. Now safely at first, Judge decided to take off for second to see if he could make it. He ended up being thrown/tagged out by the Astros on what went down officially as a caught stealing.
So yes, the Yankees won their challenge, but they still lost their baserunner and the inning ended.
