Incident Mars Red Sox Win Over Yankees

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox were one inning away from temporary closure, one inning away from not having to deal with rivalry talk until the end of May. But just when it seemed the rivalry had settled, another bizarre incident took place during the 8-5 victory by the Red Sox on Thursday night.

An ugly exchange between Gary Sheffield and a fan wearing a Red Sox cap in the right-field stands overshadowed the game.

As Sheffield chased Jason Varitek’s triple around the right-field fence, he was hit in the mouth by a fan who was reaching over the fence. Thinking it was intentional, Sheffield, after picking up the ball, took a swing at the guy.

After throwing the ball in, Sheffield went right back at the fan but refrained from throwing any more punches, and security personnel jumped between them.

“The thing is, it’s just a baseball game,” Sheffield said. “You’re trying to go about the game the right way. You don’t expect to get punched in the mouth.”

The first thought that Sheffield said entered his mind when he went back at the fan was Ron Artest, who entered the stands during an Indiana Pacer-Detroit Piston game in November and subsequently was suspended for the season.

“It would have been worse if I lost my composure,” Sheffield said. “I almost snapped, but I thought about the consequences.”

Yankee Manager Joe Torre said he had trouble seeing the incident from the dugout but absolved Sheffield of any fault without watching the replay.

“Somebody came out of the stands and whacked him,” Torre said. “These people shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets, much less come to a ballgame.”

In a scene reminiscent of the 2003 AL championship series, when the Yankees’ Karim Garcia and Jeff Nelson fought with a Red Sox employee in the bullpen, every Yankee on the field ran over after the play was dead and crowded around the wall.

As the Red Sox players stood outside their dugout watching the situation unfold, it took umpires and security personnel roughly 10 minutes to clear up the altercation. Sheffield remained in the game and was jeered loudly by the 35,030 fans at Fenway.

Sheffield said he was expecting to speak with Boston police late Thursday night, but was adamant that he was not at fault and would not face any punishment, either from the police or from Major League Baseball. “Look at the tape,” Sheffield said.

Replays of the sequence don’t make it clear that the fan was going after Sheffield, who hadn’t seen the tape himself. “I don’t know if he punched me or not, but it felt like it,” he said.

He didn’t believe that the fan was reaching for the ball, he said, because “it wasn’t a bouncing ball where you can get it. It was rolling around the wall, and no one could see it from the stands. I reached down to get it and got hit in the mouth.”

Torre was thankful security stepped in when it did, knowing the state that Sheffield was in.

“He wanted to get at him, no question,” Torre said. “No competitive person wants to get hit and have somebody run away.”

Sheffield led off the ninth and received resounding boos. Three pitches later, Sheffield launched a shot off the top of the Green Monster for a double.

The Yankees loaded the bases with two out, but pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra fouled out to Varitek to end the game.

By that point, it was hard to remember that Randy Johnson struggled in only his third start with the Yankees, giving up five runs in seven innings.