Rays overcome their own lineup, beat Indians on strange day

May 18, 11:24 AMTampa Bay Rays ExaminerRob Quinn

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The Rays and Indians mixed it up a little bit in the 8th AP/Reinhold Matay

There are strange games, and then there’s Sunday’s 7-5 Rays’ victory over the Cleveland Indians. This game featured a "genius" doing something amazingly stupid, a pitcher becoming a number three hitter, a phantom catch, umps missing calls and some back-and-forth beanball at the end. It was just a crazy afternoon at Tropicana Field.

Things began to get crazy before the game even started. The managerial genius Joe Maddon somehow incorrectly filled out the lineup card, penciling in both Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist in at third base. The plan was to have Longoria DH and Zobrist play third. Unfortunately for the Rays, the plan did not work out.

The umpiring crew, in their first mistake of many on the day, failed to notice the lineup card error. Eric Wedge brought the miscue to the umps’ attention before the Rays came up to bat in the bottom of the first and apparently it took a 15-minute conversation to figure out what to do. In the end, it was ruled that the Rays failed to declare a DH and therefore lost the right to use one for the game, forcing Andy Sonnanstine to bat in Longoria’s number three spot.

Luckily for Maddon and the Rays, Sonnanstine actually came through with an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth. With that knock, Andy became the first pitcher to ever drive in a run at Tropicana Field.

Sonnanstine had a memorable day at the plate, but did not have his best game on the mound. He pitched well enough to get the win, but he was curiously dominated by one guy – the number nine hitter Ben Francisco. The Cleveland centerfielder hit two homers and drove in four runs off Sonnanstine. Francisco is now an unbelievable 6-for-7 with four career homers against Andy. Sometimes hitters just own certain pitchers, but you just don’t see that kind of dominance.

The umpires struck again in the top of the eighth. Ryan Garko took a pitch from J.P. Howell to deep left and the ball actually missed the outstretched glove of a leaping Carl Crawford, bounced off the padding at the top of the wall, and landed right in Crawford’s left hand. Garko pulled in at second with an apparent double, only to find himself called out because the play had been ruled as a catch by Crawford. The umpires conferred and the incorrect call was upheld. The Rays caught a big break here, and the Indians just grew more frustrated.

The drama continued in the bottom of the eighth as Kerry Wood came in with two outs to face B.J. Upton. Wood’s first pitch was behind Upton and his second pitch nearly hit him in the ribs. Here’s where the umpiring crew made yet another mistake. After two obvious attempts to hit Upton, the umps didn’t even issue a warning to Wood, forcing Joe Maddon to come out of the dugout and stand up for his team. Maddon’s emergence resulted in Cleveland catcher Victor Martinez shouting obscenities at Maddon, which the Rays did not take very lightly. Carl Crawford nearly got into it with Martinez on his way to Kerry Wood, and the benches cleared, though no punches were thrown. Finally, the umps did issue the obligatory warnings to both teams, but it came way too late and their failure to take control of the game nearly resulted in a brawl.

The decision to throw at Upton may have been caused by Upton’s base-stealing on Thursday. The Rays were behind 9-0 in the bottom of the sixth when Upton led off with a walk and then proceeded to steal second and third. Those steals led to a six-run inning and got the Rays back into the game. The Indians need to wake up if they feel that stealing bases when down 9-0 in the first game of a four-game series is inappropriate in any way. The Rays needed to at least get to the Cleveland bullpen and wear out some of their pitchers on Thursday, which would help them in the final three games of the series.

Perhaps the Indians were angry about a high and inside pitch thrown by J.P. Howell to Victor Martinez on Friday. Again, that pitch was clearly an accident and didn’t even come all that close to hitting Martinez, though Victor reacted as if an attempt had been made on his life.

It seems to me that the game of "let’s hit each other" instigated by Cleveland on Sunday was just a bad team reacting to mounting frustrations due to excessive losing. The Indians saw an opportunity to take out some anger on the Rays and that’s exactly what happened.

Well, it didn’t end with the bench-clearing incident between Upton and Wood. In the top of the ninth, Troy Percival hit the first batter he faced, Mark DeRosa. Percy hit him with an 0-2 pitch, so the umpires didn’t feel it was intentional, and therefore allowed Percival to stay in the game. They could have easily tossed Percival, which would have been justified, but again elected to do nothing. The game eventually ended on a great diving catch by Carl Crawford in left. Percival ended up getting the save and the Rays are now 10-6 in the month of May and 19-20 overall.

In other Rays’ news, Pat Burrell was placed on the 15-day DL retroactive to May 11, and Jason Isringhausen has been called up to help relieve some of the stress on the overworked bullpen (sigh of relief for Lance Cormier).

The Rays will look to hit the .500 mark tonight as Jeff Niemann will go against Sean Gallagher of Oakland at 7:05 at Tropicana Field.

Get a recap of the series from the Indians' perspective from Cleveland Indians Examiner Cory Felegy right here. 

What did you think about Sunday’s crazy game? Let me know in a comment.

Jason Bartlett hits: 50

Jason Bartlett groundball singles between short and third: 9

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Have a great Rays' story idea for me? Who hits a homer first – David Ortiz or Andy Sonnanstine? E-mail me at raysexaminer@live.com

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