Blue Jays survive controversial home run call in Tampa Bay

This is what happens when the league cares so little about some of it's major league markets that they allow real, big league games, to be played in minor league stadiums. The Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays continued their four-game series in Tampa Bay on Tuesday and an incident in the third inning almost derailed Toronto's evening.

Blue Jays survive controversial home run call in Tampa Bay

Jose Berrios was cruising through his outing until Brandon Lowe hit a ball to deep right field in which a fan reached over the fence to grab the ball, negating a chance for Blue Jays outfielder Nathan Lukes to make a play.

As you can see in the video above the fan clearly reaches into the field of play and catches the ball. Whether or not Lukes would have made the catch is one thing but at the very best, that ball was going to hit off the wall. To make matters worse, Umpiring Crew Chief Laz Diaz said on the mic, "It was fan interference, but it would have been a home run anyway."

No one was really sure what that meant, including John Schneider who came out of the dugout to have a few words with Diaz following the call. It seems as if this was a rule that MLB replay consultants completely got wrong. The official MLB rules state: 'In every case of spectator interference with a batted or thrown ball, the ball shall be declared dead and the baserunners can be placed where the umpire determines they would have been without the interference.'

The rules go on to say, 'When a spectator clearly prevents a fielder from catching a fly ball by reaching onto the field of play, the batter shall be ruled out. But no interference is called if a spectator comes in contact with a batted or thrown ball without reaching onto the field of play -- even if a fielder might have caught the ball had the spectator not been there.'

So which is it? Fan interference, or not? Maybe if the Rays were playing in an actual MLB stadium, they would have had enough camera angles to clearly, definitively, saw the fans extension over the fence and into the field of play. Now, it's not the Rays fault that a hurricane destroyed their home, but it is MLB's fault for not finding a suitable replacement. There is a stadium sitting empty about 540 kilometers east of Toronto that used to house a respectable MLB franchise that could have been a solution.

While Olympic Stadium isn't a Crown Jewel of baseball venues, it's got to be better than what the Rays currently have. It also likely would have allowed for less instances like this to occur. Yes there would have had to have been a ton of obstacles to overcome to move Tampa to Montreal, even if just for a year, but the fact that MLB has two teams playing in minor league stadiums (with the Athletics playing in Sacramento) it doesn't exactly give those fans a vote of confidence that MLB takes those franchises seriously.

Can you imagine the Yankees or the Dodgers having to spend a full year playing in a minor league ballpark? It would never be allowed.

Regardless of the awkward situation, the Blue Jays prevailed 6-5 and even got a fan interference home run for themselves when Lukes hit his 11th home run of the season later in the game. The Blue Jays have now won six in a row and their magic numbers continue to drop, as their magic number just to make the playoffs is down to two, while their magic number to clinch the division title is six.