The Dome Broke In Toronto Last Night

It was one of those nights. Never mind the 12-0 drubbing at the hands of the Orioles, or the season-low attendance of 13,556, or even the gradual realization that the Jays aren't going to sniff .500, a figure they always tend to be within a couple games of on either side. It was poor judgment and a mechanical failure teaming up to provide the only appropriate meteorological backdrop for a lost season, crystallized: rain, inside the dome.

It rained most of the day in Toronto. But as the skies cleared around game time, the Rogers Centre made the curious decision to retract the roof in the second inning, despite the radar showing more mess on the horizon. Sure enough the rains came again in the fourth, and the switch was thrown and the gears clanked and the roof rolled, a race to seal the raindrops out and the bad vibes in. Then the closing roof slowed—it never completely stopped, but a process that's only supposed to take 20 minutes was mercilessly extended beyond an hour.

The infield turned unplayable. The red clay of the pitcher's mound isn't designed to get wet, and quickly became mud. The Rogers Centre, never expecting a quagmire, doesn't have a cleat scraper on hand for pitchers to clean out their spikes. Blue Jays starter Carlos Villanueva was visibly upset as he tried to kick the mud out of his shoes, but to his credit, noted that his Oriole counterpart had to deal with the same conditions.

There was a brief delay in the middle of the sixth inning as the grounds crew tended to the infield, though not long enough to officially become the seventh rain relay in SkyDome/Rogers Centre history.

Soon after, the fire alarm went off. It was one of those nights.