Little-known MLB rule explains why incredible Alex Verdugo catch lost Yankees Game 1

After Game 1 of the World Series, you can officially edit Alex Verdugo's racing, tumbling-into-the-stands catch into the highlight reel of "Incredible Plays No Yankees Fan Ever Wants to See Again". It joins the hallowed halls of DJ LeMahieu's ALCS Game 6 home run in Houston, and should ironically join Derek Jeter's sprawling catching into the seats, which occurred in a 2004 regular season game against the Boston Red Sox. Raise your hand if you have no desire to relive the Yankees' 2004 regular season success against Boston, given what was to come!

That Jeter play was on everyone's minds Friday night, but especially after the Dodgers' runners moved to second and third on the dead ball that Verdugo's catch created. Wait ... what? That ... happens? But ... we've seen this ... before and it didn't ...

Verdugo tried to get the ball back to the infield as quickly as possible, but that mad dash was rendered irrelevant by the law. Jeter's play occurred with two outs and ended the inning. Verdugo's came with multiple active runners on, who were awarded a free base after the dead ball was created. They moved up not on the illegal throw from out of bounds (a fair assumption), but on the catch itself.

According to the 2024 edition of the official MLB rule book: Rule 5.06(b)(3)(C) Comment: If a fielder, after having made a legal catch, should step or fall into any out-of-play area, the ball is dead and each runner shall advance one base, without liability to be put out, from his last legally touched base at the
time the fielder entered such out-of-play area.

Yankees outfielder Alex Verdugo's spectacular catch set off chain of events leading to Freddie Freeman World Series walk-off

Due to the proliferation of protective netting down the lines these days, such catches rarely, if ever, happen. Of course, this marks the second time in two years the Yankees were screwed by the literal construction of Dodger Stadium; Aaron Judge's toe will never forget the impact of that concrete.

Of course, without two runners in scoring position, Aaron Boone may not have walked Mookie Betts intentionally, and Freddie Freeman may never have strode to the plate. At the very least, the Betts at-bat would've taken longer, and he wouldn't have made impact with the baseball at the exact same time as Kirk Gibson had 36 years prior. The "free base" moving from third to first shouldn't have changed Boone's calculus, but ... it sure did. It always does. He's only human.

The Yankees lost this game in 1,000 ways, from Judge's putrid offense to Gleyber Torres' lackadaisical fielding to the lack of trust in Tim Hill. But to know they were disadvantaged by a play that should've been an all-time championship probability swinger in their favor really hurts.