After 1st home rain delay in team history, Rays walk it off

TAMPA -- Saturday afternoon began with the threat of rain, turning the inevitable into a reality at George M. Steinbrenner Field: the first official home weather delay in Rays history.

The rain eventually came, forcing the Rays and Brewers off the field for 38 minutes during the fifth inning and prompting fans to break out the free ponchos the team gave away on the concourse “to commemorate the Rays’ first official weather delay.”

By the time it was all over, Travis Jankowski’s jersey was soaked -- not just by the rain, but by an icy shower on the field courtesy of teammates Junior Caminero and Christopher Morel, celebrating the 11-year veteran outfielder’s first career walk-off hit.

After a dramatic ninth-inning escape by closer Pete Fairbanks, Jankowski hit a two-out single off Trevor Megill and sent the Rays to a 3-2 win -- and a series victory -- over the Brewers at Steinbrenner Field.

“To be able to stay locked in through that entire process, and then having some rain on and off as we came back on the field, it's not easy to do,” Jankowski said. “It says a lot about the character of the guys in this clubhouse and how much winning every game means to them.”

The Rays’ third walk-off win of the season gave them back-to-back victories at home for the first time since April 13-14 and sealed their first series win at Steinbrenner Field since April 11-13 against the Braves, snapping a four-series home losing streak.

With one out in the ninth, Kameron Misner -- mired in a 4-for-43 slump -- worked a walk against reliever Grant Anderson and got a great jump to steal second against Megill. Up came Jankowski, who laced a 99.4 mph single to shallow left field that Isaac Collins bobbled, allowing Misner to easily score the winning run.

Playing in his 699th Major League game, Jankowski described the low line drive -- his first walk-off hit since he was in the Minors with Single-A Fort Wayne in 2012 -- as the swing that “got me to the big leagues, what’s kept me in the big leagues.”

“Picked us up in a huge way,” manager Kevin Cash said. “That game, you win, you feel really good. You lose, either way, you're pretty frustrated. So I'm happy that we're feeling pretty good.”

With rain in the area, the Rays pushed back starter Taj Bradley’s first pitch from its scheduled 4:10 p.m. start time. The club said in a scoreboard announcement that the decision was made “due to incoming weather,” but the 27-minute delay turned out to be a false alarm.

The rain picked up again during the fifth inning, with the score tied at 2, leading to another franchise first: an in-game weather delay, which lasted 38 minutes and created what Brewers manager Pat Murphy called “a tough hitting environment.”

Bradley returned to the mound despite going nearly an hour between pitches and fired a clean, nine-pitch sixth to complete his fifth quality start of the season.

“There wasn't much discussion. I wasn't gonna have it,” Bradley said, laughing. “I was going out for the sixth, in my eyes.”

The Rays were occasionally inconvenienced by bad weather during their first 27 seasons at Tropicana Field. They had to reschedule games due to hurricanes, and storms occasionally caused power outages in the area that affected the Trop’s lights.

After 27 seasons playing under a dome at Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay knew this year would be different and prepared accordingly. With only director of special projects and field operations Dan Moeller and head groundskeeper Mike Deubel having experience pulling a tarp, the Rays’ grounds crew worked Yankees home games in the ballpark during Spring Training to get familiar with the process.

“I was very excited to watch an indoor grounds crew pull the tarp. I was very excited to see that,” Fairbanks said, smiling. “I thought they handled it great. They kept the field playable, did a great job, all in all.”

After the rain passed, Fairbanks weathered a storm of his own.

After striking out Brice Turang to begin the ninth, back-to-back Brewers reached on rare errors by Rays infielders -- a wild throw by Caminero and a misplayed grounder by first baseman Jonathan Aranda. Fairbanks then walked Rhys Hoskins, loading the bases with one out.

Fairbanks composed himself and got Sal Frelick to pop out. He then calmly retired Caleb Durbin to get out of the inning unscathed, roared as he walked off the mound and watched Jankowski’s walk-off heroics.

“I'm -- as we know at this point -- pretty fiery,” Fairbanks said. “Just given where we have been at home over the past two weeks to the past two nights, make the plays and get the job done -- sometimes you've got to let it out a little bit.”