Overview

• In the top of the fourth inning Friday, a squirrel emerged behind home plate, scurried into the batter’s box, and bumped Red Sox rookie Jhostynxon Garcia.
• The animal paused on the mound within feet of Yankees ace Max Fried, after which Fried’s next pitch went to the backstop for ball four.
• It then sprinted toward first base as Ben Rice stepped aside, continued down the right-field line, and disappeared into the right-field digital scoreboard area.
• The episode drew a loud response from the sellout crowd and went viral, with Garcia calling the moment unbelievable in his MLB debut and Rice saying he didn’t want to touch the squirrel.
• Play resumed quickly with no injuries, and coverage noted similar Yankee Stadium animal interruptions in 2023 and 2021 as Boston went on to win 1-0 and move ahead of New York in the wild-card race.