On Saturday, Josh Donaldson proceeded to go deep, crushing a go-ahead homer in the seventh inning. Yankees reliever Chad Green surrendered the lead after Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges hit a momentum-changing home run of his own, but the Yankees fought back in the ninth. A red-hot Isiah Kiner-Falefa tied the game at four in the bottom of the ninth with a two-out, two-strike double. The next batter, Gleyber Torres, singled to right, cementing a 5-4 win.
But the walk-off win was marred by multiple incidents between Yankees fans and Guardians outfielders.
Chaos first ensued when the rookie Steven Kwan crashed into the left-field wall while chasing after Kiner-Falefa’s double. Kwan was left with a scraped face and seemed shaken up. As Kwan recovered, center fielder Myles Straw took issue with some of the comments Yankees fans directed at Kwan. Straw responded by climbing the outfield fence for a face-to-face confrontation with the rowdy crowd.
The situation only escalated. After Torres hit his game-ending single to right, fans began hurling beer cans, ice cream and other leftovers from the concession stands at Straw, right fielder Oscar Mercado and other members of the Guardians. Yankees players, led by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, abandoned the team celebration and tried to stop the foolishness coming from the stands.
After the game, Mercado called the display “classless,” while Straw said the Bronx faithful is the “worst fan base on the planet.” On Sunday morning, Boone understood the sentiment, though he also rejected it.
“That’s an emotional reaction to the moment,” Boone said. “Certainly understand that, but would disagree with that.”