Tidbits from Tropicana Field

Image courtesy of Daylife via AP

You’d think with the Blue Jays best hitter out of the lineup, they would have a hell of a time scoring runs. While that may be true to an extent, Adam Lind has taken the ball and run with it in Bautista’s absence.

4 for 4? What a night for Adam Lind – I don’t know if he’s just seeing the ball extremely well or what, but keep it up! Add Jose Bautista into the mix and the Blue Jays 3/4 hitters may start looking like the deadliest combination in the AL East.

Brandon Morrow stuck out another 6 Tampa Bay Rays which puts his career K/9 against the Rays at 10.2. Whatever it is about Tampa, Morrow just loves to fan the Rays.

I didn’t watch the game in its entirety, but it sounded like Chad Fairchild was in a hurry to catch the 9:30pm showing of Fast Five due to his widened strike zone. His strike zone was slightly expanded, but the problem is, it’s so damn hard to tell because of the weird camera angles at Tropicana Field.

Did anyone even notice John Farrell getting ejected by Chad Fairchild? When it  came to confrontations with the grounds crew, Cito Gaston was the calmest manager I’ve ever seen. Yet Farrell’s demure was even calmer, and somehow he got tossed.

Even Joe West got in on the fun and ejected Joe Maddon. Rumour has it West followed that up by ejecting another pilot.

Finally, has anyone else noticed that whenever a ball strikes off the field at Tropicana Field, it reacts in the same way as the turf on a crappy minigolf course? Apparently it’s a side affect of the new artificial turf which was installed earlier this year.

Tropicana Field boasts to be the only artificial surface on the majors with all dirt basepaths (as opposed to dirt cutouts). Which I guess is great for the infielders I guess, but I can’t imagine the outfielders are very fond of that turf.

Whenever I see the turf react that way at Tropicana Field, it makes the turf at the Rogers Centre look like the 18th green on St. Andrews.