dropped third strike question

Question
I've seen where you have answered this question before, but I have one small twist to add.  Runners on 2nd and 3rd two out. Batter swings and misses for strike three, ball gets past catcher.  Batter takes about 7-8 steps down first base line and then "freezes", not sure what to do I guess.  Catcher tries to tag runner coming from third instead of throwing to first.  Misses the tag at the plate, then sees the batter not at first yet and throws them out.  Umpire counts the run.  Right or wrong?  I couldn't hear all of his explanation to the coach, but I think it had something to do with the attempt on the base runner.  And of course the game ended with a 1 run margin....go figure!
Thanks!

Answer
Hi Joe,

Thank you for your simple question: "Right or wrong?"  WRONG!  

Your scenario qualified for 2 of the times in which the run doesn't count when the 3rd out occurs:
1) the 3rd out was a force out  
2) the batter/runner was put out before reaching 1B

Since you mentioned honestly that you couldn't hear all of the umpire's explanation about their ruling, let's just assume that the umpire actually never did say that the run counted because of "something to do with the attempt on the base runner,"  because that is an incorrect statement.  The run DOESN'T count, but the run not counting doesn't have anything to do with the attempt on the base runner.  It doesn't count because 1) the batter-runner was forced out for the 3rd out and because 2) the batter-runner was put out before reaching 1B.

This is a "protestable" umpire ruling, by the way.

Scott Kelly