A light rain was falling Thursday night at Petco Park when, with two outs in the top of the seventh, Colin Rea flung a 1-0, two-seam fastball toward the glove of Derek Norris. Yoenis Cespedes swung at the pitch and made contact. In the stands, thousands of heads turned in unison.
Had this particular game taken place several years ago, the ball, which caromed off Cespedes' bat at a velocity of 98 mph, probably would have wound up in the glove of second baseman Jemile Weeks. In all likelihood, there would have been a routine groundout. The game would have moved to the bottom of the seventh, a chase for history still intact.