TORONTO – There have been stranger scenes over the years at the Rogers Centre, like the one on Aug. 27, 1990 when a swarm of insects infested the dome to force a 35-minute bug delay against Milwaukee, or the one June 18, 1997 against Atlanta, when fog led to a 14-minute stoppage.
But the middle-innings mess during the Toronto Blue Jays’ 12-0 thumping from the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night certainly ranks right up there among bizarre moments, as the roof sat stuck with some 150 or so feet to go, rain falling on one narrow strip of field and a fire alarm going off, to boot.
“It was definitely surprising,” offered Blue Jays starter Carlos Villanueva, on the mound when the rain was falling its hardest in the top of the sixth. “Looking up, I was just waiting for that last little bit to close and then the alarm went off.
“It was a very adventurous couple of innings. It’s unfortunate, but it happened.”
There was a brief, but unofficial, rain delay in the middle of the sixth as the grounds crew worked to dry the mound after Villanueva stopped to show home-plate umpire Laz Diaz the clay build up in his cleats en route to the dugout.
The exchange came after the right-hander looked up to the roof with a quizzical, what’s-going-on-here expression.
“I told (Diaz) this is kind of ridiculous that it’s going on right now, but he told me, ‘Yeah, I know. I’ve never seen this before,'” recalled Villanueva, who surrendered a run on two hits in the frame. “We have nothing behind the mound, usually on other mounds you have something for your cleats. I could feel my cleats getting heavy, but you can’t stop the game, I’m no umpire, I’ve got to keep going until they think we can’t go anymore.
“At that point you have to bear down, you can’t use that as an excuse because it happened. It was definitely a strange sight out there.”
By the time Orioles starter Zach Britton took the field for the bottom of the sixth, the mound had been taken care of by the grounds crew and the roof inched forward enough to keep him dry.
“There was actually a point where it wasn’t raining on the mound but it was raining behind the plate,” said Britton. “I was laughing at them because they had to wear it and I didn’t.
“It’s a little bit of an adjustment because you don’t expect it but once it closed it up it was fine.”
The Rogers Centre has experienced four official rain delays since opening in 1989, the most recent coming in 2003 when the roof couldn’t be shut in time after a sudden shower. That July 26 delay against the White Sox lasted 26 minutes.
On Tuesday the night began with the roof closed, it started opening after the second inning, and once a light drizzle resumed, started to close again during the fourth. It got stuck in the sixth after crawling along, finally sealing up in the seventh.
A handful of affected fans among the season-low crowd of 13,556 had to scramble for cover, leading the Blue Jays to make the following announcement: “Fans, we are experiencing technical difficulties with the roof. It is closing slower than usual, but will close shortly. The Toronto Blue Jays thank you for your patience and your understanding.”
Adding to the strangeness of the night were competing chants from frosh-week fans in the upper deck, their noise coming with no bearing or relation to what was happening below.
At least there weren’t bugs, but it still provided a whole lot of unexpected sideshow.
“I can say a million things about what happened out there with the roof, but the fact of the matter is it happened, everybody wants to do their job, and I don’t know if it got stuck or whatever happened, but we were definitely not prepared for that,” said Villanueva.
“I’ll be better prepared next time if it happens again.”
The Rogers Centre has experienced four rain delays:
June 7, 1989 against Milwaukee, six minutes
Aug. 10, 1991 against Boston, 14 minutes
July 21, 1994 against Texas, seven minutes
July 26, 2003 against White Sox, 26 minutes
