Tropicana Field catwalks strike again, leave Kevin Kiermaier hanging on wall

If not for those pesky catwalks, baseball at Tropicana Field would be pretty much normal.

Granted, the ballpark itself would still be slightly dull and not aesthetically pleasing, but the baseball would be normal. And that’s all we can ask for.

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About those catwalks, though. They definitely exist, and they aren’t going anywhere any time soon, which means they’ll continue wreaking havoc on Major League Baseball games.

In fact, this week alone we’ve seen two notable instances of the catwalks interfering with play.
On Thursday, they helped out the home team by robbing Minnesota’s Miguel Sano of a monster home run. Sano’s smash, which according to one estimate would have traveled 470 feet, struck a catwalk that’s considered in play. The ball remained live, and Sano was only able to make it to second base. 

That brings us to Friday night with the Royals in town. Kansas City’s Kendrys Morales crushed a baseball that appeared ticketed for the blue hitter’s eye in straight away center field. Kevin Kiermaier, who’s among MLB’s premier defensive outfielders, read the same thing and raced back, even climbing the wall in anticipation.

Then this happened.

Strike a pose. http://t.co/DqbGf7llq1 pic.twitter.com/61CX8ZW8C5

— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) August 29, 2015

Doink.

The catwalk strikes again, and Kiermaier’s left hanging around.

#Rays Kiermaier on the wall as Nava tries to get under #Royals Morales’ 2-run HR that hit the catwalk in the 3rd. pic.twitter.com/MtIsWExFfT

— Will Vragovic (@willvrag) August 29, 2015

Incredible effort. Even better image. But, yeah, right fiielder Daniel Nava actually had a better chance at catching it.

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Here’s the most interesting part about the play. Had Nava actually caught, it wouldn’t have mattered. Since Morales’ ball hit a different catwalk than Sano’s ball, it had a different result.

For Morales, it was a two-run homer, which would have been the likely result anyway. Nothing gained, nothing lost this time around. Though based on the final score, which saw the Royals win it 3-2, the ground rules were critical to the outcome.

The same could be said one night earlier. When Sano settled for a double, he was stranded on second, and the Twins lost the game 5-4. It’s kind of a silly way for a baseball game to ultimately be decided. It’s like baseball pinfall, for the lack of a better term, but that’s the reality of baseball at Tropicana Field. We’re just glad the catwalks don’t impact the outcome more often. 

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813