Immediate Out Call, or Wait for Appeal?

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by Manny A

FED rules. R1 and R2 at third and second, resp. Single scores both, but R2 misses the plate as the throw home gets cut off and a play is made on the BR going to second. As R2 heads for her dugout, the on-deck batter, who saw R2 miss home, grabs her, turns her around, and tells her to go back to home.

What should the PU do at that point? Does he/she rule R2 out immediately for teammate assistance under rule 8-6-5? Or does that rule no longer apply since R2 passed home so she is assumed to have reached it, thereby making her a runner that has already scored? And if that's the case, does that scored runner stay viable for an appeal call even if she touches home because she was assisted by a teammate to do so?

It's rare when one of these makes me wonder... but this one did.

I think my initial thought, and how I'd probably rule on the field, would be that the assist is not illegal at the moment it's made - the runner is a scored runner. But if the runner made it back to touch home, it retroactively means the runner had NOT scored at the time of the assist, and I'd call the out then - even without an appeal.

But I wait to be corrected by Irish or Steve if this is not what ASA would want.