NEW YORK — There is fan interference and there is misdemeanor assault, and what happened to Dodgers star Mookie Betts in the right-field corner of Yankee Stadium in the first inning of Tuesday night’s 11-4 World Series Game 4 loss to New York might qualify as the latter.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Betts said after the game, frustrated by the Dodgers’ inability to complete a four-game sweep of the Yankees but happy to have avoided serious injury on the play. “But there’s always a first time for a first.”
Gleyber Torres led off the bottom of the first with a fly ball to right that drifted into foul territory. Betts, a six-time Gold Glove Award-winning outfielder, leaped at the high padded wall in foul territory and made the catch between two Yankees fans, one wearing a road gray jersey and the other wearing a home white pinstriped jersey.
But as Betts tried to secure the ball, the fan in the road jersey — identified by the Athletic’s Brendan Kuty as Austin Capobianco, 38, of Connecticut — reached into Betts’ glove in an attempt to pry the ball loose.
The other fan then grabbed the wrist of Betts’ throwing hand and yanked on it so the outfielder couldn’t grab the ball, which squirted out of Betts’ glove and fell onto the dirt warning track. Right-field umpire Mark Carlson immediately called fan interference, and Torres was ruled out.
Capobianco and the other fan, who was not identified, were ejected and escorted from their seats by stadium security, exchanging high-fives and at least one hug with applauding fans as they walked up the aisle.
“Yeah, that looked ridiculous from my perspective,” Dodgers shortstop Tommy Edman said. “The guy was trying to yank his glove off, pulling at his wrist. … It looked like he got ejected, and I’m glad he did. I’ve never seen anything like that. That was unacceptable.”
Betts played the first six years of his big-league career with the Boston Red Sox, on the opposite side of one of baseball’s fiercest rivalries, so he’s used to being the object of scorn in the Bronx. But never in his 11 big-league seasons has he seen fans take such aggressive actions toward a player.
Though he was clearly angry at the fans after the play, he did not harbor any ill will toward them after the game.
“It doesn’t matter, we lost, it’s irrelevant,” Betts said of the play. “I’m fine. [The fan] is fine. Everything’s cool. We lost the game, and that’s what I’m focused on. We gotta turn the page and get ready” for Game 5 on Wednesday.
Dodgers reliever Ben Casparius, who threw the first two innings of a bullpen game Tuesday night, allowing one run and one hit, walking three and striking out one, grew up as a Red Sox fan in Westport, Conn., and said he attended some 50-60 games in Yankee Stadium as a kid, always sporting his Red Sox gear.
Was the right-hander surprised by what happened to Betts?
“No, not at all,” Casparius said. “I think it was an interesting moment, just being a couple of pitches into the game. And obviously, there’s a history with this team and [Mookie] playing for the Red Sox as long as he did. It was kind of like a ‘here we go’ moment early on.”
The Dodgers had a “here we go again” moment in the top of the first when Betts doubled into the right-field corner with one out and Freddie Freeman lined a two-run homer into the right-field seats for a 2-0 lead. It was deja vu all over again for Freeman, who hit a two-run homer in the first inning of Monday night’s 4-2 Game 3 victory.
But the Yankees scored once in the second, and shortstop Anthony Volpe crushed a poorly placed first-pitch slider from Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson into the left-field seats for a two-out grand slam and a 5-2 lead.
The Dodgers scored twice in the top of the fifth to trim the deficit to 5-4, but New York catcher Austin Wells blasted a solo homer into the second deck in right field in the sixth for a 6-4 lead.
The Yankees then blew the game open with a five-run eighth off Dodgers right-hander Brent Honeywell, a rally that was highlighted by Torres’ three-run homer to right-center.
Struggling Yankees slugger Aaron Judge capped the rally with an RBI single to left after walking, getting hit by a pitch, reaching on an error and flying out to center field in his first four plate appearances.
“They’re gonna fight,” Betts said of the Yankees. “If you made it this far, you have a resilience in you. You’re gonna fight the whole time. We expected that. Obviously, we didn’t play well today, and they did. That’s why they won.
“We’re up three games to one right now. We feel pretty good about it. But no lead is safe until you win the fourth game.”
