Ugliness caused by fans mars Yankees' walk-off victory over Guardians
Yankees' Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton run out to right field while unruly fans toss bottles and cans onto the field near Cleveland Guardians right fielder Oscar Mercado after Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres hit a walk-off single to win the MLB baseball game 5-4 at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, April 23, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Talk about winning ugly.
The Yankees’ exciting 5-4 walk-off victory over the Guardians on Saturday was marred by two incidents involving Cleveland players and fans in the outfield, the second of which led to Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge running out to rightfield after the game ended to play peacemakers and get fans to stop throwing objects at the Guardians.
The first incident came after Isiah Kiner-Falefa tied the score with a two-out double off the leftfield wall in the ninth inning. Cleveland leftfielder Steven Kwan was being tended to after crashing into the wall in a vain effort to catch the drive.
All of a sudden, Cleveland centerfielder Myles Straw climbed the chain-link part of the fence to get almost nose-to-nose with a fan who, rightfielder Oscar Mercado later said, was “celebrating Kwan getting hurt.”
Mercado pulled Straw down from the fence. Kwan stayed in the game.
The second and more dangerous incident occurred after pinch hitter Gleyber Torres lined a game-winning single to right-center to give the Yankees the victory. The ball split the outfielders and went to the wall on that side of the outfield.
As the Yankees celebrated near second base, fans in rightfield starting throwing objects at Straw and Mercado. Mercado threw down his glove and walked toward the fence to jaw with fans before his teammates and security guards pulled him away.
As the Yankees players saw what was happening, they, too, started running out to rightfield. Judge and Stanton gestured at the fans, telling them to knock it off.
Torres stood near second base with his hands on his hips, his big moment sullied by the ugliness that erupted in the outfield.
“I feel like we have amazing fans,” Torres said. “But those kinds of situations, we just want to respect the opponent. That thing can’t happen again.”
Straw called Yankees fans “classless” and the “worst fan base on the planet.”
Said Mercado: “You can celebrate your team walking off all you want, but don’t throw [stuff] on the field. That’s how people can get hurt. I should’ve probably walked away, but . . . Don’t try to get people hurt. That’s not how things work. At the end of the day, we’re human beings as well, so I’m not going to sit there and allow them to throw stuff at me. They need to be held accountable and I think there should be rules set up for that. That’s ridiculous and that should not happen.
“I appreciate the Yankee players coming out and trying to control them and I have a lot of respect for that. We’re out here playing a game and it’s for their entertainment. And we’re competing our butts off. Root all you want. Talk smack all you want. It’s all fun and games, just don’t be a [jerk] about it, and definitely don’t bring violence into it.”
Of the first incident, Straw said: “Kwan is the nicest guy on the planet. That’s my teammate, that’s my brother. My emotions got to me a little bit. As a Yankees fan, I feel like you should be excited for your team, you should be cheering, but you should never prey on someone. He went real hard into the wall. There is no business for saying the things those guys said to him. It got to me a little bit . . . You can say whatever you want to me, but when somebody goes headfirst into a wall, take a breath and let him get his feet under him. His chin was messed up. His forehead was messed up. Give him a breather. Guys are saying stuff to Tito [Guardians manager Terry Francona] and to Kwan. Let him recover. Chirp all you want, but when someone is hurt, it’s not something to joke about.”
In the immediate aftermath of the game, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but he knew it should never happen again.
“Obviously, there’s no place for throwing stuff onto the field in that situation,” he said. “I’ll get more clarity on it in a little bit, but obviously we certainly don’t want to put anyone in danger. Love the intensity, but you can’t be throwing stuff out on the field.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
