Trayce Thompson's majestic moonshot was the latest victim of Tropicana Field's catwalk
Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg offers something that no other MLB stadium has: the disappearing home run.
During the Dodgers' Tuesday matchup with the hometown Rays, outfielder Trayce Thompson walloped a Matt Moore offering so high and far into the night that it literally never came down thanks to the Trop's catwalk.
Yes, the catwalk up in the rafters high above the outfielders' heads. The same catwalk that sometimes yields ground-rule doubles as a result of unpredictable ricochets and odd bounces, and sometimes completely absorbs a majestic home run that would otherwise land halfway up the bleachers.
As you'd imagine, this was a first for Thompson, and as he told MLB.com's Ken Gurnick after the game he didn't even know it had happened until later in the evening:
"2-0 and he left a fastball out over the plate. Lucky enough I didn't miss it. Never had a ball that never came down. Someone's always caught it or it's landed somewhere. That was pretty interesting. . I actually didn't see until someone texted me. J.T. was talking about going up on the catwalk tomorrow. It would be funny."
In other instances of catwalk-affected-plays, defensive wizards like Francisco Lindorcan be more or less bewildered by the phenomenon, too.
As Gurnick reported shortly after the play, this was the sixth time in Tropicana Field history such a unique blast has happened:
Thompson's home run hit the catwalk and did not come down, 6th time in Tropicana Park history.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) May 4, 2016
If you're curious about the catwalk and the ground rules it created, let the Rays clear it up for you:
Two-run catwalk HR by Thompson, solo shot by Pederson put the @dodgers ahead, 3-1, in the 2nd. Rules of the rings:https://t.co/VyHvUd1T27
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 3, 2016
The most recent came off the bat of John Jaso last season during his return engagement with the Rays.
You have to wonder how many more vanishing home runs someone like Giancarlo Stanton would hit on a pretty regular basis at a stadium like Tropicana Field ...
Trayce's brother Klay Thompson caught wind of his noteworthy blast, too. After the Warriors beat the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 2 of their playoff series on Tuesday night, Klay offered this up:
Klay closes his interview: "Anybody see Trayce Thompson's home run tonight. He hit that thing like 550 feet."
— Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) May 4, 2016
Update: Unfortunately for Trayce, he was not allowed up on the catwalk to see where the ball landed.
Trayce Thompson said he was not allowed on the catwalk at Tropicana Field to see where his home run landed.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) May 4, 2016
