A base-running blunder by the Red Sox, inspired by a mistaken scoreboard, delivered the most confusing run of the 2026 baseball season, involving timing plays, fourth outs, a job called the BOSS operator, and Rule 5.09 (c)(4).Let’s take a ride.So wait, what happened?The Blue Jays led the Red Sox 2-0 in the top of the seventh inning Monday night, with one out and runners on the corners. However, the large center-field scoreboard at Rogers Centre displayed that there were two outs. So when Ceddanne Rafaela hit a routine fly ball to center, both Anthony Seigler on third base and Nick Sogard on first base ran without tagging up. (Even Toronto pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson smacked his mitt when the ball was caught in center, thinking it was the third out.)Second baseman Josh Smith fielded the relay throw from Brett Bateman and threw to first base to double off Sogard for the third out, the two-run lead seemingly intact.But crew chief Chris Guccione initiated a review over whether Seigler had scored before Sogard was doubled off. You might think that wouldn’t matter: that Sogard is being forced out as the third out, and that the timing doesn’t matter. However, a tag-up is a timing play and not a traditional force play; a player is forced only when there is a runner behind him who must move forward. So because Seigler touched home plate before Sogard was doubled up, the run counted.But Seigler didn’t tag either!It doesn’t matter whether Seigler tagged up himself or not. A runner is allowed to run before the ball is caught; it’s the defense’s responsibility to get him out for doing so.Or, as Blue Jays broadcaster Dan Shulman put it to The Athletic on Tuesday: “You can do whatever you want; it’s just a question of whether they catch you doing something you’re not supposed to do and appeal it.”Why was the scoreboard wrong?One batter before Rafaela, Sogard hit a low line drive to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. that the first baseman fielded off a short hop and fired to second base for an out. But the scoreboard operator appears to have mistakenly thought Guerrero had caught the ball and gotten a second out at second base; thus, the scoreboard stated that there were two outs.