4th Out?

[SamNVa]

Dave,

The question here is should you allow a fourth out at 1st base to count as the "final" out of an inning and disallow a run, even though the thrid out has already been recorded.

The rule book says that the defense only gets 3 outs to retire the offense and that when the third out is made, the inning is over. If the defense decided to get that 3rd out on a tag play which allows a runner to score, should we let them off the hook just because they were able to record a "fourth" out which happened to be a force?

The rule books give a specific example where a fourth out is allowed on an appeal play against the runner that scored which results in the run not counting, but I am hesitant to extend that example to any situation in which a fourth out could disallow a run. The defense gets 3 outs to retire the offense. They had better use them wisely.