The Twins raise the roof
The Rays' 8-6 loss to the Twins Thursday afternoon didn’t come without its share of controversy and a bizarre turn of events. Tampa Bay erased a six run deficit in the bottom of the eighth and appeared poised to win the series against the Twins and keep their slim lead over the Yankees in the American League East division. Neither happened because of the Tropicana Field catwalk that hovers 190-feet above the field.
Jason Kubel's pop up turned into a game-winning single that left Minnesota’s bench ecstatic, while Tampa Bay’s players were left scratching their heads and in complete disbelief. A pop up which should have ended the inning hits the roof which alters the ball’s trajectory and lands infield is the go-ahead run, really?
According to the rules, any ball hitting the A-ring catwalk in fair territory and landing in fair territory is in play.
“I think it's probably the perfect commercial advertisement for a reason to have a new ballpark," Maddon said. "There's no better reason than that. I know it works both ways, but to lose a game in a pennant situation like that because of the roof truly indicates why there's a crying need for a new ballpark in this area, regardless of where they put it.
"It just needs to be a real baseball field where, if you were to lose the pennant by one game and look back at a game like that because the roof got in the way, we'd be very upset."
Tampa Bay shortstop Jason Bartlett had the best view in the house as he was the one trying to track the ball and make a play on Kubel’s pop up. "I knew that with high fly balls here, you tend to lose them at the top so you have to stay with it," Bartlett said. "And then, at the last second at the top, it hit that catwalk and dropped straight down."
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire could not feel sorry for the Rays because his team suffered a similar fate back in 2007 when the outcome of a game was determined by the very same catwalk that won them Thursday’s game. "We've lost ballgames here just the same way, so back at you," said Gardenhire.
Call it poetic justice and karma, but now the Twins are even and both ball clubs split their four-game series. The Rays are now 67-41 on the season and a half-game behind New York fighting for supremacy in the majors.
Kevin Slowey had a strong outing for Minnesota and was replaced in the eight by Jesse Crain. At this point, the Rays were trailing 6-2 and got a huge boost from Jason Bartlett who blasted a game-tying grand slam.
But that moment and the tie were short lived after Twins’ Michael Cuddyer hit an RBI single to put the Twins up 8-6.
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