Ron Washington didn’t quite accuse the Yankees of any wrongdoing, but the Texas manager admitted he never had seen anything like what he witnessed Wednesday night in The Bronx.
With the Yankees up by a run in the bottom of the fifth, a torrential downpour began faster than predicted, and what started out as a typical rain delay turned into an almost comical scene as the grounds crew, bat boys and other personnel scrambled to try to fix the tarp, but it still took three attempts and ended up taking 14 minutes before they finally succeeded.
Washington wasn’t laughing, because by the time the tarp was finally in place, the field was drenched, resulting in a 2-1 Yankees win when the game was called after a delay of an hour and 49 minutes.
“I don’t think it was intentional, but usually when they start pulling that tarp, it makes it,” Washington said. “That one didn’t make it.”
When asked if it crossed his mind it may have been intentional, Washington said: “Next question. I’m not going to get into that.”
But he did explain what he saw.
“Those guys on the grounds crew are professionals at what they do and they usually do that well,” Washington said. “That didn’t happen, and it ended up messing up the field.”
And it couldn’t be repaired, even after the rain stopped. The umpires were ready to resume the game at 10:05 p.m. and Texas starter Yu Darvish even went back on the mound, but after inspecting the conditions, both Washington and Yankees manager Joe Girardi agreed the infield was too soft.
“It was sunken,” Washington said. “It was soft, very soft, especially around the baselines and each bag.”
Girardi had similar thoughts.
“Ron Washington said, ‘It’s a hamstring just waiting to be pulled,’” Girardi said of the managers’ conversation with the umpires as they huddled around second base. “We were waiting to see what was going to be done. The umpires called New York. The grounds crew did everything they could and Mother Nature took over.”
Umpire crew chief Dale Scott eventually called the game.
“There were some tarp issues,” Scott said. “The problem was it’s not something, even if there was no [more] rain, it’s not going to magically dry up. It wasn’t the surface, it was underneath.”
Washington consulted with Texas general manager Jon Daniels, but the team was left with no recourse and couldn’t protest the game.
“There’s no rule,” Washington said. “We complained. We definitely complained. Our major complaint was that because of them not being able get the tarp on the field, this game shouldn’t come to us losing. Maybe it should have been suspended.”
To make things even worse for the Rangers, they lost with their ace, Darvish, on the mound.
“We certainly didn’t feel like one run was going to hold us,’’ Washington said. “Especially to lose Yu Darvish is extremely tough.”