The Tampa Bay Rays swept both ends of a day-night doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday. The Rays were happy with the results, but they were strongly opposed to playing two games in one day — especially since they thought Dustin Pedroia bobbleheads were the reason for the doubleheader.
According to the Boston Herald, the Red Sox had their choice of when to make up their game against the Rays that was postponed on Wednesday night due to the threat of heavy rain. The options were a day-night doubleheader on Thursday, a doubleheader when the Rays returned to town later this month or in September, or a makeup on a mutual off day.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Wednesday was supposed to be Dustin Pedroia bobblehead day at Fenway Park. Once the game was postponed, there were reports that the Rays felt the Red Sox wanted to make up the game so quickly because they did not have enough storage space for the bobbleheads at Fenway.
“It does feel good,” Ben Zobrist said when asked about taking both games of the doubleheader. “I hope everybody enjoyed their bobblehead.”
The Red Sox denied that bobblehead storage played any role in their scheduling decision.
“We have offsite storage available to us for storing giveaway items,” chief operating officer Sam Kennedy explained. “The bobbleheads had nothing to do with our decision to play two (today). We have a responsibility to play 81 home games each season, and attempting to play two games today gives us the best chance.”
Rays manager Joe Maddon certainly didn’t seem pleased about having to play a doubleheader.
Proud of our boys . All the convoluted stuff yesterday, then spending all day in Fenway's diminutive clubhouse made it tough to win a split.
— Joe Maddon (@RaysJoeMaddon) May 2, 2014
Red Sox manager John Farrell explained that making up the game later this month would have been an issue, since it would come during a stretch in which Boston has 37 games in 38 days. Making a game up in September is also not ideal, since the league likes teams to save those later dates for potential rainouts later in the season.
Wait, what are we talking about again? Bobblehead storage? You must be joking…
