A strange incident occurred during Friday night's San Francisco Giants game against Atlanta as a fan threw a baseball onto the field during a live play, leading to confusion and causing a safety risk.
It happened in the top of the fourth as the Braves loaded the bases while the Giants were leading 3-0. Braves batter Sean Murphy hit a fly ball to right field. Braves runner Matt Olson tagged up from third base as Mike Yastrzemski made the catch.
As Yastrzemski made the throw home, another baseball was thrown from the upper deck behind home plate. The ball thrown from the stands hit the ground about 10 feet from home plate near the first base line and was less than 2 feet from hitting the home plate umpire. Meanwhile, the ball thrown by Yastrzemski was about 6 feet wide of home plate on the first base side, and catcher Patrick Bailey had to dive to prevent the ball from bouncing into the backstop. The bad throw allowed Olson to score, cutting the Giants lead to 3-1.
Fortunately, the stray ball did not interfere with the outcome of the play, but it certainly caused a lot of confusion. As the umpire called time, the Giants infielders stared at the extra ball on the field. Giants broadcasters said they had never seen something like this happen in a game.
Well that's a first 😬 pic.twitter.com/yHtdJ6T2Ft
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 7, 2025
This continues a trend of strange incidents at Oracle Park. Last year, a fan was ejected from Oracle Park for throwing a foul ball back and nearly hitting an umpire.
It is not uncommon for fans to throw home run balls hit by visiting players back onto the field, but usually the play is well overwith. Over the years, we have seen some humorous incidents of young fans throwing back home run balls and foul balls, usually due to misunderstanding that they can actually keep the ball and take it home. That leads to awkward discussions with their parents.
It should go without saying, but Holdout Sports does not condone fans throwing baseballs on the field, especially during live action. We can only hope that the idiot who threw the ball onto the field was tossed from Oracle Park and will be banned from attending any future Giants games. There's no place for this nonsense.
As for the rest of the game, the Braves scored another run in the fourth before the Giants ended the rally. The game went into extra innings, where the Giants won 5-4 in the 10th inning on a walk-off wild pitch.
