For 2nd time in '19, power goes out at The Trop

ST. PETERSBURG -- For the second time this season, a power outage delayed a game at Tropicana Field.

During the fourth inning of Thursday's series opener between the Angels and Rays, the power went out at the ballpark, caused by a storm that affected the St. Petersburg area. The game resumed after a 36-minute delay, and the Halos won, 5-3.

Initially, Tropicana Field went completely dark as all of the lights and scoreboards went out. Lights remained on inside the press box and a few other areas in the stadium. With the lights off, fans tried to get some light inside the ballpark by turning on the flashlights on their cell phones.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it like that before,” Rays starter Ryan Yarbrough said. “I’ve heard about some things and of all things, it was kind of cool when everyone turned their lights on. It kind of looked like a little concert.”

After about three minutes, the lights on the playing field returned and Angels manager Brad Ausmus, Rays manager Kevin Cash and the umpires met at home plate in order to discuss the outage and the status of the game. The Angels led, 3-0, at the time of the outage.

“I thought there were things completely out of the stadium’s control,” Cash said. “We were dealing with major storms coming through the area. Hopefully, there weren’t any accidents that happened outside or around the Bay Area, but we were just kind of at the mercy of the substation getting power and getting power to us.”

During the delay, Yarbrough went to the bullpen to stay loose as some of the other players stayed around the dugout awaiting for a decision on when the two teams could resume play.

“Communication was still going pretty well,” Yarbrough said. “Obviously, they’re trying to figure out everything and they kept asking me how I was feeling and I was able to go out there and play catch.

“I mean, it happens throughout your career in the Minor Leagues and rain delays, so you kind of get a feel here and there of how you’re feeling or if you think you can still go. But I was playing catch enough that my body was still loose."

Angels starter Tyler Skaggs, who was on the mound at the time of the power outage, found it humorous that the lights went out right before he threw a pitch.

“Luckily, I wasn’t in mid-pitch, because that would have been really weird,” Skaggs said. “It was close, because I had the grip and was pretty much ready to go. It was interesting.”

A similar outage occurred on May 12 during a Yankees-Rays game, which led to a 43-minute delay.