OK, a question from a baseball junkie to anyone with umpiring experience. A play in the first inning made we wonder about a hypothetical. Even after looking at the MLB rulebook, I cannot find a clear answer.
Obviously, if a runner on 1B attempts a stolen base on a pitch which ends up being ball 4, the throwdown is rendered irrelevant as the runner is granted the base automatically. However, it is not a dead ball situation. If the runner attempts to advance past second, he can be tagged out.
My question, if in the stolen base attempt on ball 4, the runner slides in, the ball is thrown down and the tag is applied, can the runner be called out if he slides past the base or pops back off the bag after touching it initially? This type of tag situation comes up on snap tags at the base all the time now.
Would the runner be "live" so to speak having already touched his automatically granted base and coming back off again on his slide? Or is it like a play on running through first where you have to make an obvious turn towards the next base to be considered live again?
Can the runner sliding into 2B be tagged out after popping back off the bag, or is he considered safe until he makes a deliberate act towards the next base?
Given the frequency of reviews on pop-off plays at 2B on stolen base attempts, I am wondering if this could be a challengable play in the scenario above on what is usually treated as a de facto dead ball (even though the ball usually remains live on a BB).