Things got ugly at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon (April 23) when New York Yankees fans began throwing debris from the stands at Cleveland Guardians players, including the MLB‘s Colombian-American outfielder Oscar Mercado.
The incident took place at the bottom of the ninth inning after Yankees pinch-hitter Gleyber Torres hit a walk-off RBI single to give New York a 6-5 victory. As soon as the game was won, Yankees fans started throwing cans of beer and trash at opposing players.
“[A beer can] came right at my face, and I caught it; it still had beer inside,” Mercado told the media after the game. “[Fans] can chirp all they want during the game, but don’t try to get people hurt. I, personally, am not going to sit there and allow them to just throw stuff at me. They need to be held accountable. That’s ridiculous, and that should not happen.”
Prior to the disturbance, Mercado pointed to a fan in the stands who was apparently mocking the fact that Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan was injured on the previous play. Guardians center fielder Myles Straw climbed the fence and confronted one Yankees fan face-to-face.
“There was a specific Yankee fan in left field [who] was celebrating Kwan getting hurt,” Mercado said. “It’s just acts of violence. You can’t say stuff like that, especially when someone gets hurt. You can chirp all you want, but don’t celebrate someone getting hurt. That’s classless.”
Straw added: “Worst fan base on the planet.”
As trash rained down on the field, a couple of Yankees players ran into the outfield to tell their fans to stop throwing things at the visiting team.
