Well that escalated quickly! (Photo Credit: X-Rays Spex)

Talk about an eventful ninth inning. Not only was there an untraditional, Joe Maddonesque, mid-inning position change, but the game ended with a bench clearing scrum that was preceded by an expletive laden, game ending strikeout of Michael Taylor.

The inning began innocuously enough, with left-hander Jose Alvarado on the mound to face Bryce Harper. Six pitches (and a walk) later, Kevin Cash went to something that had been in the Rays’ playbook for some time, yet was only spoken about this afternoon.

With the right-handed hitting Anthony Rendon stepping into the batter’s box, and Chaz Roe warming in the ‘pen, Cash strolled out to home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez, explaining that he intended to bring in Chaz Roe to pitch (and bat fifth), with Alvarado moving to first and Jake Bauers to left field.

After the game, Cash told reporters that the plan for Alvarado was simple:

to just go stand on the bag and kind of stay out of the way.

Bauers gave him his glove and some advice:

Catch the ball if someone throws it to you.

Roe struck out Rendon on six pitches, and the musical chairs continued once more.

Bauers moved back to first, Mallex Smith shifted to left field, Carlos Gomez entered the game in right, and Alvarado took the mound once again.

(Cash) pulled a little Joe Maddon move right there, Roe said. With two lefties coming behind Rendon and Venters on the shelf, I thought it was a good move. It didn’t work out to our favor, but it worked out in the end.

But Alvarado surrendered a pair of seeing eye singles to Juan Soto and Daniel Murphy, and suddenly Washington had the bases loaded with one out. In that sense, the plan didn’t work.

That’s when Cash called on Sergio Romo.

Romo first got Trea Turner to pop out to shallow right, then struck out Taylor to end the game. Yet the right-hander also settled a score that began three weeks ago, on June 6, when Taylor swiped third with a seven-run lead in the sixth inning of that contest. That led to bench clearing scrum, yet nothing more than some pushing and shoving.

After the game, Romo explained his issue with Taylor, saying:

I think I said enough out there, Romo said. Self-explanatory, I think. No disrespect to that team, no disrespect to their coaching staff, no disrespect to anybody on that team other than the person I felt disrespected me and my team.

Don’t know him personally, nothing against him off the field. Just let you know that this game is very unforgiving. The way I was taught to play this game it governs itself, and just had to let him know I didn’t like it.

For his part, Taylor didn’t realize Romo took umbrage until he saw his teammates react.

I understand the situation, he said. They’re upset I stole a base at home in the sixth inning. In my mind, you saw how many runs they scored with nine outs yesterday. So the game’s not over. Obviously, they think differently, but I’m not worried about that. We lost the game. That’s the only thing that upsets me. The talking and things like that, I’m not big on drama, so it’s whatever.

All’s well that ends well. No one walked away with any physical injuries, and the Rays ended the day with their fifth straight win, second consecutive series sweep, and one game under .500.

Leave a comment