[DJWickham]

Moose's initial question concerned when is the ball dead?

We know the ball must be alive for the defense to appeal to get the advantageous fourth out. Even if the defense wrongly appeals, the ball is live until the ruling on the appeal. So, after the third out, the ball is at least in limbo pending appeal (sort of like the election).

In our situation, it was certainly possible that the defense could attempt to appeal the failure to retouch home. The appeal would be denied because the runner returned to the plate and wasn't tagged.

So, the umpire seems to have two choices in recognizing time. First, treat the the ball as dead on the third out. If the defense actually makes an appeal, then the umpire will then recognize live ball to rule on the appeal. Under that choice, Moose's original analysis would hold true: the runner retouched the plate during dead ball-no run.

The second notion, is to treat the ball as live until the defense has a reasonable opportunity to make an appeal (even wrongly), and then the umpire will recognize time if the defense has not made an appeal. Under that notion, the runner retouched the plate during live ball, but after the third out was recorded.

Same result, but very different reasoning.