OK, I was at Busch Stadium on Sunday and saw this play happen. Didn't have the luxury of a radio or TV to know exactly what happened, but this is what I saw:

1st inning, 0 out, R2 (Renteria). R2 breaks for third on the pitch, B1 (Pujols) hits a fly ball to center. Renteria rounds third about the time the ball leaves the infield, and starts on a straight line back to 2B without retouching 3B. Throw comes in to 2B, not in time to double off Renteria.

When Pujols hit the ball, on his follow-through, his bat came around and hit the Mets catcher (Vance Wilson) in the head. As soon as the ball gets to F4, PU calls "time" so the Mets' trainers can come out and check on him. Pitcher (Leiter) starts arguing that Renteria didn't retouch third and wants to appeal. Obviously, since the ball is dead, 1) he can't appeal yet and 2) Renteria can't go back and touch third. Once Wilson leaves the game and a replacement comes in, Leiter steps on the rubber to put the ball in play. Renteria breaks for third, but the ball beats him and he is called out on the appeal.

I'm pretty sure I'm right on this, but Renteria could not have erased the appeal had he beaten the throw to third, right? If the ball had not become dead, he would have had to go back and retouch third, and retouch second again before being able to advance.

Apparently. This is play 6-4 (Section 4) in the 2004 BRD. "Last time by" doesn't apply to a gross miss [more than a body length] of the base, 'cause the runner is "making a travesty of the game, deliberately ignoring the baserunning rules".

"I'm pretty sure I'm right on this, but Renteria could not have erased the appeal had he beaten the throw to third, right? If the ball had not become dead, he would have had to go back and retouch third, and retouch second again before being able to advance."
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It appears, as cb states, that the runner missed retouching third by a gross margin that was not intended by the Last Time By ruling.

However, if he missed it by an allowed distance and beat the appeal at third he would have been safe using the Last time by ruling, even though he didn't touch the bases in order while advancing and/or returning.

It would be pretty hard to call a runner, that is standing on third base, out for missing third base, I wouldn't recommend it. G.

[Edited by Gee on Aug 10th, 2004 at 08:57 AM]