Members of the Tampa Bay Rays grounds crew roll a tarp over the infield during a rain day in the … More
Two days after the Rays were swept in a three-game series by the Phillies for the third time in as many years and in as many cities – St. Pete, Philly and Tampa – yet another first took place during this unique 2025 season. It is unique thanks to Mother Nature delivering a wallop to Florida’s Gulf Coast last October in the form of Hurricane Milton, a pounding that included tearing apart the roof of Tropicana Field.
With the club playing its 81-game home schedule at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, a popular topic of discussion was the timing of the first rain delay. That question was answered Saturday afternoon before Taj Bradley delivered the first pitch to Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio, though ‘weather’ delay as opposed to ‘rain’ delay was more appropriate given not a drop of rain fell as the tarp was placed on the field a little after 3:00 with the start time pushed back from 4:10 to 4:37.
That gave fans plenty of time to procure a useful souvenir. The Rays announced prior to the season that commemorative “First Rays Rain Delay” ponchos would be given to all fans who cared to pull on one on when the first drops of precipitation fell. Alas, like champagne that remains on ice waiting for corks to pop, the ponchos remained in cardboard boxes until the 27th game at Steinbrenner, or exactly the one-third mark of the home schedule.
Indeed, a byproduct of the Rays moving outdoors was a front-loaded slate that featured 19 of the first 22 games at home and 37 of 58 by the time June rolls along. The purpose of such scheduling was to avoid, at least as much as possible, uncomfortable summer conditions, including pop-up thunderstorms that could send fans scrambling with little notice. Hence, there are only eight dates at Steinbrenner in July and August.
The sight of fans putting on their ponchos when rain actually fell during the home team’s half of the fifth inning, resulting in a 38-minute delay, was a sight never before seen at a Rays’ home regular season or playoff game. That includes playing a series in Orlando in May 2007 against the Rangers and in April 2008 versus the Blue Jays.
“I remained in the dugout the whole time,” said Bradley, who had to wait about 50 minutes between pitches when considering the rain delay plus the fact he was in the dugout for about 10 minutes as his teammates batted when the clouds opened up. “(Pitching coach Kyle Snyder) came up with a routine like we were starting the game over.”
The 24-year-old righthander said it was the first time as a big leaguer that he had to wait out a weather delay. Indeed, neither of his 26 career road starts were interrupted in such a manner.
Head groundskeeper Dan Moeller and his crew went into action like it never had to at the Trop in rolling out the tarp for the first time at Steinbrenner Field. The tarp initially did not stay on long, perhaps 15 minutes. It was a different story in the fifth inning when rain finally arrived.
“I was very excited to watch an indoor grounds crew pull the tarp,” said Pete Fairbanks, who got the win when Travis Jankowski drove in Kameron Wisner to walk it off in the ninth, 3-2. “I was very excited to see that and I thought they did a great job. They were out there ready to roll.”
