Guardians' Oscar Mercado: Yankees Fans Must Be 'Held Accountable' After Throwing Cans
An altercation between the Cleveland Guardians outfield and fans in the stands at Yankee Stadium overshadowed the New York Yankees' 5-4 walk-off win Saturday.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Guardians outfielder Oscar Mercado said the fans who were throwing items at the players "need to be held accountable" for their actions.
The situation started when Cleveland's Steven Kwan crashed into the left-field wall trying to make a catch on Isiah Kiner-Falefa's RBI double that tied the game.
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Yankees fans appeared to be taunting Kwan as he was being examined by the training staff. Mercado and Myles Straw came to his defense.
After Gleyber Torres' walk-off single, fans began throwing items onto the field. Things even got to a point where Straw scaled the wall in right field to get in one fan's face.
Mercado said he was nearly hit in the face by a semi-full beer can, and Straw said Cleveland reliever Trevor Stephan got hit with an ice cream cone.
Straw went on to call Yankees fans "classless" and "the worst fanbase on the planet."
Other Guardians players and stadium security were able to intervene before things escalated after that, but right field was littered with garbage.
Mercado went on to say: "Say whatever you want to say. Do whatever you want to do. But at the end of the day, there have to be consequences for behavior like that."
Ethan Sears of the New York Post noted an umpire who was attempting to settle things down was hit by a thrown item.
"That can't happen," Kiner-Falefa told reporters. "I love the fans, love the atmosphere, but we win with class."
Several Yankees players, including Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, also made their way to the outfield in an attempt to calm the fans down.
Even though the situation did escalate, security appeared to get things under control fairly quickly without any injuries.
The Yankees scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat Cleveland for their second straight win in the series.
