WATCH: Manny Machado’s failed hidden ball trick costs Padres a run in win over Red Sox

Manny Machado almost pulled a fast one on the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night. In the third inning, the San Diego Padres third baseman attempted the hidden ball trick on Jarren Duran at third base, but because pitcher Wandy Peralta was standing on the rubber without the ball, it was called a balk. Rather than be called out, Duran was allowed to score, giving the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.

Alex Bregman had been caught in a rundown on the previous play and Machado simply held onto the baseball. He placed a tag on Duran once he took his lead, and Duran would have been out had Peralta not been on the rubber. If Peralta had been, say, behind the mound fiddling with the rosin bag, it would have been a legal play and a successful hidden ball trick.

Here’s the play:

“I thought it was a great baseball play. I’ll take some responsibility,” Padres manager Mike Shildt told the Associated Press. “We want to work on everything that can possibly happen in spring training. It’s my miss that we didn’t. You just can’t be on the rubber when that happens. But Manny’s IQ shows up again. Just something we didn’t work on. He was on the rubber. But he had him.”

Rule 6.02(a) covers balks and yes, the rules are as vague as you would think given how balks often play out on the field and the confusion that tends to follow. Rule 6.02(a)(9) says a balk occurs when “the pitcher, without having the ball, stands on or astride the pitcher’s plate or while off the plate, he feints a pitch.” Peralta standing on the rubber appearing ready to pitch apparently counts as “feints a pitch.”

Although the failed hidden ball trick allowed a run to cross the plate and gave the Red Sox take the lead, Machado and the Padres came out OK in the end. San Diego won the game 5-4 on Ramón Laureano’s tenth-inning walk-off single. The win improved the Padres to 65-52. They are three games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.

The last successful hidden ball trick was turned by former Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria against the Dodgers on Aug. 10, 2013. Shortstop Yunel Escobar had the ball following a bases loaded sacrifice fly and quickly flipped it to Longoria, who then tagged an unsuspecting Juan Uribe.