This was one of the most bizarre games I've ever been to.
Tuesday was a stiflingly hot day here in Baltimore with temperatures (in the shade) up to the mid 90s with high humidity too. The weather forecast was for potential thunderstorms in the evening - it was right. The rain started coming down about an hour before first pitch. It didn't last all that long, but I can see a sliver of the infield through a gap in the stadium's walls from my hotel room's window, and the infield was still covered, so I didn't bother going over until a while after it had been removed.
In some senses, I timed it perfectly - the national anthem was just finishing as I entered the stadium.
The Reds' first batter hits the ball, it ricochets off the pitcher towards first base, the pitcher's running towards first and shovels it to the first baseman, who drops the ball, whilst the runner is unable to stop after passing 1st and takes out the 1st base umpire who was moving from fair to foul territory to get into a better position to make the call, who subsequently left the game. He doesn't even get listed in the box score having umpired only 0+ innings of the game! So, the remaining 3 umpires realign to cover everything and the game continues for 4 more pitches, and then the heavens opened.
At this point, a 2 hour rain delay occurred, although the heavy rain didn't actually last very long. The main problem was that the tarp was still wet from its pre-game use and the ground crew had a huge struggle to cover the infield that left the area around 3rd base something of a lake, somewhat reminiscent of the Giants/Cubs game at Wrigley recently which had to be called in similar circumstances. It took half an hour after the tarp was removed, plus dozens of bags of diamond dry to repair the infield before we could get under way again, still in top of the 1st, none out, with a runner on 2nd - and only 3 umpires. I spent a lot of it talking to a couple of guys who'd travelled down from Pennsylvania to watch the game - they didn't have to work tomorrow, so didn't mind the game potentially going on a long time. I told them all about my trips, and they told me about their trip to the UK and other sports-related things.
After the resumption, Norris got the next three outs without conceding a run and then the fun started, as the Orioles put 4 runs on the board as Mat Latos struggled through the bottom of the 1st. A solo home run in the bottom of the 2nd extended the lead to 5, but then everything settled down and zeroes were put up for the next 5 innings.
As time had gone by, many of the families started leaving and others and as the clock passed 11pm and the crowd had thinned out considerably albeit from a not very large one at the start (many people probably stayed away due to the forecast) it was announced that as a gesture of appreciation to those who had stuck it out for so long, everybody was welcome to sit in the bottom level of seating, where the expensive seats are. I didn't go down, and neither did many of the other few remaining on the club level, which has a great view anyway.
Everybody was just willing the game to be over quickly, and then in the top of the 8th, O'Day came on to pitch for Baltimore and loaded the bases with a walk, an error and a hit by pitch, and gave up a grand slam to Jay Bruce, making it 5-4.
In the next half inning break, we had "The Midnight Hour" and other songs featuring the word 'midnight' played on the stadium PA system with the scoreboard clock shown on the video screen, as it had just passed midnight.
The Reds got the tying run the third base and go ahead run on 1st in the top of the 9th with just 1 out and everybody except the Reds players and fans by their dugout feared we could be going to extra innings. Then a great double play was turned to tag out the runner from 1st and complete the double play at 1st so the game was over and it didn't matter that the runner from third had got home.
Lots of celebrations, ground crew come and remove the bases, everybody starts going home, and then ... "The last play is under review" as the Reds challenged it. The ground crew put the bases back, wheeled off their wheelbarrows and the umpires huddled around the headset and thankfully a quick confirmation of the out came from New York and everybody could continue going home.
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