Fan at Yankee Stadium hits Red Sox's Alex Verdugo with a baseball
Home plate umpire Jeff Nelson and a member of Yankee Stadium security point toward fans after Red Sox leftfielder Alex Verdugo had a ball thrown at him by a fan in the sixth inning Saturday night. Credit: EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/Jason Szenes
The Yankees-Red Sox game Saturday night began 52 minutes late due to a weather delay, even though it wasn't raining and the tarp was not placed on the field.
But that wasn't the strangest stoppage of play in this game.
Play also was halted before the Yankees took a 3-1 lead when a fan at Yankee Stadium threw a ball at Boston left fielder Alex Verdugo and hit him in the back.
"It felt like it was targeted towards me and it don't sit well with me,” Verdugo said.
Verdugo began yelling at fans and was restrained by first base coach Tom Goodwin. Red Sox manager Alex Cora briefly pulled his players off the field, and the game resumed after a discussion with umpires near Boston's dugout.
“This is just a game,” Cora said. “It's a game. It's not life and death and it's not this drama, and the fact that people come to the ballpark and they decided to throw a baseball (at) one of the players, I was in shock that that happened."
Verdugo said he threw the ball into the stands to a young Red Sox fan, but a Yankees fan intercepted it and threw it back onto the field and hit Verdugo.
Verdugo gestures toward the stands after the ball was thrown during the sixth inning Saturday night at Yankee Stadium. Credit: Getty Images/Adam Hunger
“It's awful, embarrassing, unacceptable,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
The Yankees won, 3-1, in a game shortened to six innings because of the rain. It was the first win for the Yankees against the Red Sox this season.
