Bizarre ground-rule double defines Rays' series finale

ST. PETERSBURG -- Thursday’s game between the Twins and Rays already had enough suspense. It was a two-run contest in the bottom of the seventh. The trailing Rays were threatening in a pivotal series finale for both clubs at Tropicana Field, an eventual 4-3 Tampa Bay loss.

And then everything came to a halt. The game was put on pause for about 10 minutes. What happened?

“To be honest, I have no idea,” Rays outfielder Jonny DeLuca said. “That’s what happened.”

Let us explain: With two outs and DeLuca on second, Yandy Díaz blistered a Pablo López fastball down the right-field line. The ball came off of Díaz’s bat at 105.3 mph, which meant that right fielder Matt Wallner was going to have to hurry in order to keep that liner from reaching the wall.

“He hit it way harder than I initially thought,” Wallner said. “I had to take a steep route when I ran, and the wall was there.”

Wallner was able to stop the ball from getting to the fence. Stopping himself, however, was a different issue.

Sprinting to his left, Wallner couldn’t slow his momentum. In a flash, the 220-pounder disappeared from the field of play, tumbling over the short wall outside of the right-field foul line and into a small group of security guards.

“I think I pretty much missed everything, so I was good there,” Wallner said.

What do you do when the outfielder with the ball vanishes from the diamond? If you’re Díaz, you keep running. The Rays’ leadoff hitter looked back toward the right-field corner as he pulled in at third. Wallner gathered himself and threw the ball in as quickly as he could as he climbed back onto the turf.

The umpires ruled that Díaz had to go back to second base for what would be an RBI ground-rule double, cutting the Rays’ deficit to 4-3. But that was followed by a lengthy replay review, which allowed Twins players to chat with Díaz during the break.

“[Carlos] Santana was asking me where I was going, and I told him, ‘I was going to third base because the ball hadn’t come in yet,’” Díaz said via team interpreter Manny Navarro.

Then Wallner trotted in to joke around with Díaz.

“He was asking me why I hit the ball so hard over there to right field.”

Ultimately, the ruling on the field was confirmed. According to rule 5.06(b)(3)(C) in the Official Baseball Rules, if a fielder, after having made a legal catch, should step or fall into any out-of-play area, the ball is dead and each runner shall advance one base, without liability to be put out, from his last legally touched base at the time the fielder entered such out-of-play area.

“I haven't seen that before, so I was kind of funky,” DeLuca said.

Díaz was left at second base as the inning ended once Brandon Lowe grounded out against new Twins pitcher Griffin Jax. Christopher Morel’s triple with two outs in the eighth gave Tampa Bay another chance to even the score, but Jax wriggled out of that inning by firing a 98.3 mph fastball past pinch-hitter Dylan Carlson.

The Rays went down in the order in the ninth, resulting in a disappointing split in a crucial series for their already-slim playoff chances. They left just as they entered -- seven games behind the Twins in the AL Wild Card standings -- and now embark one of the most grueling road trips any team can experience.

Beginning Friday, Tampa Bay’s next 10 games will feature visits to Baltimore, Philadelphia and Cleveland, three first-place clubs.

There was a bright spot for the Rays, however: Taj Bradley rebounded from a rough six-start stretch to strike out 10 over seven innings. The right-hander was tagged for a couple of home runs early -- a three-run shot by Edouard Julien in the second and a solo homer by Wallner in the third -- but he retired 12 of the final 14 batters he faced while leaning on his cutter. That pitch was Bradley’s put-away offering on six of his K’s and registered 11 whiffs on 17 swings.

It was an encouraging outing for the 23-year-old who had posted a 9.85 ERA over his previous six turns.

“The stuff looked really crisp,” manager Kevin Cash said of Bradley. “Got through seven innings. Velo was good … . He could have let [the early home runs] snowball from there, but he did not.”