Pete Fairbanks walked all three batters he faced in the bottom of the ninth inning for the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday against the Colorado Rockies.
Fairbanks was replaced by Jason Adams, who surrendered a game-winning grand slam to Ryan McMahon.
The reliever blamed his control issues on low-quality baseballs.
\"They were horrible. You can mark that down in all caps for me: horrible,\" Fairbanks said. \"That\'s what happens when you don\'t throw strikes, you get punished for it. So, I\'d love to see those come out of the humidor tomorrow in a little better shape before they get rubbed up, but there\'s nobody to blame but myself for not being able to adjust to some of the quality issues.\"
Coors Field employs a humidor to prevent the baseballs from drying out at the high altitude.
When Fairbanks was asked what, specifically, about the balls he found to his disliking, he declined to elaborate beyond saying they were \"not uniform from ball to ball.\"