Watch: Braves almost make great play, still record bizarre out
Get ready for one confusing highlight.
In the third inning of Tuesday's game against the Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals outfielder Juan Soto stroked a deep fly ball to center field with teammate Trea Turner standing on first base. Center fielder Ender Inciarte jumped and appeared to flip the ball to fellow outfielder Adam Duvall with his glove to complete a spectacular play.
Turner, reacting as if the ball was caught, hustled back to first base to prevent what could have been a double play.
We got some afternoon #weirdbaseball.
— MLB (@MLB) August 7, 2018
(Also, we don’t really know what happened here. Apparently it wasn’t an out but it was an out at the same time? We just run a Twitter account. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) pic.twitter.com/Ipohymc22y
Except, it wasn't that simple.
The game's official scorer awarded a single to Soto because the ball connected with the outfield wall, but he was called out at first after Turner returned to the bag.
The third base umpire appeared to rule no catch on the play, and Soto did round first base. He was still in fair territory when Turner returned to the bag, and was thus called out, per Mark Zuckerman of MASN.
In the end, the result was exactly the same as it would have been if Soto was called out on the catch, but that's not what officially happened.
It looked like an out, but was actually a hit that became an out. Got it? Good.