Rays' Fairbanks rips 'horrible' baseballs after rough outing at Coors

Tampa Bay Rays closer Pete Fairbanks had a rough introduction to pitching at Coors Field on Friday, and he blamed the infamous humidor.

"(The baseballs) were horrible," an irked Fairbanks told reporters after the Rays' defeat to the Colorado Rockies, per Bally Sports Sun. "You can mark that down in all caps for me. Horrible."

"(They were) just overall bad," Fairbanks said. "I'm not gonna elaborate further than that. They were not uniform from ball to ball - dry, smooth, whatever you want to say. Just not in uniform, didn't feel right."

Fairbanks walked all three batters he faced and struggled during his save opportunity. Two batters after he was pulled, Jason Adam allowed a walk-off grand slam to Ryan McMahon, saddling Fairbanks with the loss.

Fairbanks only threw five of his 17 pitches for strikes during the brief outing and seemed to have no control over his normally reliable slider. He didn't throw a single strike with his sliders, which flew all over the zone.

"It's tough to throw your slider when the ball goes that way out of your hand," he said while gesturing upward with his finger.

Denver's high altitude and thin air have long caused problems for pitchers since the Rockies entered the league in 1993. Colorado has tried to remedy the issues and even the playing field for visiting teams by keeping its baseballs in a humidor since 2002.

Rockies reliever Peter Lambert, who didn't allow a run during his appearance Friday, told Pat Graham of The Associated Press that "there's definitely a difference" in feel between the baseballs at Coors and elsewhere. "Sometimes, it can be a little more dry, and the ball can feel a little more chalky."

Fairbanks, whose ERA ballooned to 18.00 and WHIP spiked to 3.00 after the rough outing, said he didn't want to use the baseballs as the sole excuse for his poor performance.

"(I) didn't throw strikes, and that's what happens when you don't throw strikes - you get punished for it," the 30-year-old said. "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."