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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — As Giants pitcher Robbie Ray tells the story, when he walked to the dugout after a scoreless first inning Sunday afternoon at Scottsdale Stadium, teammates greeted him in congratulatory fashion.
“Hey, way to get out of it.”
“Way to put up a zero.”
Ray shook his head and smiled.
“Yeah, I did a lot.”
In fact, the left-hander didn’t do much at all, other than issue walks to his first two batters and yield a single to the next guy up. Yet he had the best seat in the house for one of the wackiest innings in Scottsdale Stadium history.
Nobody knew which was more bizarre: the loud recording over the PA system calling for everyone to evacuate (which many fans obeyed but the players and umpires ignored) … or one of the goofiest triple plays in the history of the game.
“Yeah, that was a dicey situation,” manager Tony Vitello said. “For it to end the way it did, it’ll be something we’ll joke about all spring training long.”
First things first.
Ray opened the game by walking Matt Shaw, who stole second, and then walked Alex Bergman. Up stepped Seiya Suzuki, who popped a single behind second baseman Luis Arráez. Arráez picked up the ball and quickly fired to first baseman Rafael Devers, who was in position to cut off a throw to the plate. But Shaw, the lead runner, stayed at third, so Devers alertly threw to shortstop Willy Adames covering second. Suzuki was out.
Bedlam followed. Adames noticed two runners at third base and jogged toward both, then tagged both. Umpires called Bregman out.
1 day ago
4 days ago
Friday, Feb. 13
Double play.
But wait. Shaw mysteriously and aimlessly wandered off the bag, either thinking he was the one called out or the inning was over. Either way, as Jon Miller described in the broadcast booth, Shaw “made a boneheaded rookie mistake.”
Adames had handed the ball to third baseman Matt Chapman, who nonchalantly followed Shaw off the bag and tagged him.
Triple play.
“I think Shaw thought he was out, so I just tagged him,” Chapman said. “Not much more to it. Just early spring training, getting used to running the bases again, but we’ll take it.”
It turned into a quasi-clean inning for Ray, thanks to the 4-3-6-5 triple play that, in this bizarre world, began with a base hit and involved all four infielders.
“A glitch in the matrix” is what Chapman called it.
And about that announcement that kept repeating to evacuate the premises …
“Attention. Attention. An emergency has been reported in this building. Please cease operations and leave the building utilizing the nearest exit or the exit stairwell. Do not use elevators. Repeat. Do not use elevators.”
Ray faced Shaw and then Bregman during the announcement, and while much of the crowd of 9,408 listened to orders and quickly began to head for the exits, the game played on. The Giants’ fielders went nowhere, Ray kept pitching, and Bregman remained in the box.
“I’m looking up in the stands, and they’re filing people out,” Ray said. “‘We’re just gonna play through this?’ It kind of rattled me a little bit. It’s enough chaos for spring training in one game.”
The game resumed because the first-base umpire yelled for the players to continue playing – the crew apparently had heard from the communications folks in the press box that all was well.
The departing fans ultimately figured if the players were sticking around, they should return to their seats, so they did.
What triggered the emergency warning?
Someone was smoking in the bathroom.
Believe it.
Mötley Crüe needs to redo their 1985 hit: “ ‘Cause everybody knows that smokin’ ain’t allowed … at the ol’ ballgame.”
“I’ve been a condo guy pretty much my whole career, and when the fire alarm goes off, you just assume somebody pulled up,” Vitello said.
Vitello’s one regret was that Ray wasn’t aware it was no big deal.
“If we could go back in time, maybe I should’ve done something different,” said Vitello, adding bench coach Jayce Tingler “was calling people trying to see if we could get an update. For Robbie’s sake, it would’ve been nice if he knew it’s fully OK. I think he kind of had the halfway OK.
“The good thing for him, I don’t know if Robbie’s going to have more adversity this year than he had in that situation.”
The Giants beat the Cubs 4-2, but the score was not the story on a day San Francisco’s new-look infield got an A-plus and Chicago’s baserunning and the fan lighting up in the bathroom got an F-.