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The last-place Boston Red Sox beating the playoff-bound New York Yankees may have been unexpected, but there was much more bizarre occurrence Sunday at Fenway Park. The eighth inning of the game was interrupted for nearly 10 minutes when a man snuck into the stadium and acted erratically.

Boston’s Michael Chavis was playing in left field at the time and said afterward he was heckled by the man, who was dressed in a Red Sox jersey and threw blue hats onto the field. Eventually, the unidentified man was taken into custody, and Boston police said (via boston.com) he was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

There were no fans in the stands at the time, continuing a season-long MLB policy enacted because of the coronavirus pandemic. That made the man’s intrusion all the more noticeable, and his shouting all the more audible.

“He was yelling that I’m no Michael Jordan because I wear 23 and my name’s Michael,” Chavis said (via masslive.com) following the game.

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“It was kind of a weird situation and part of me doesn’t really even want to get into it, just because you don’t want to encourage that kind of stuff,” Chavis added. “It was kind of scary there for a moment, with some things that happened.”

The Red Sox said the man was able to scale the back of the left field wall, also known as the Green Monster. He was spotted when he moved into the camera well in left-center field, and he heightened an already dangerous, unpredictable situation by briefly dangling off the railing before he was talked into climbing back into the well and surrendering.

After several minutes of the fan standing on the camera well, even doing pushups at one point lol, police officers escort him off the Green Monster.

That was ... something pic.twitter.com/vPiMs8hO1M

“Probably the last thing you think is you’re going to have a fan delay in this season,” Yankees catcher Erik Kratz said (via nj.com), after he pitched the eighth inning of his team’s 10-2 loss. “For a little bit, I thought there was concern for him. It looked like he was going to jump down off the cage.”

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“I don’t know exactly what was being said out there,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said. “I’ll try not to make too much light of it because it could have been a scary situation, so hopefully everything’s handled.”

The man was not arrested, per reports, as authorities await the results of his evaluation.

Boston’s victory snapped a 12-game losing streak to its archrivals, and it ended a 10-game winning streak the Yankees brought to the park. Later on Sunday, New York earned a playoff berth after the Seattle Mariners lost to the San Diego Padres.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, are mired in their worst season since 1932, in terms of their current win percentage (.370). Just two years ago, the team won its fourth World Series title in a 15-year span.

Chavis had a better experience at the plate than in the field, as he clubbed two home runs and had five RBI. The 40-year-old Kratz gave up a home run to Boston’s J.D. Martinez during his one inning of mop-up work, his sixth career appearance on the mound in 11 MLB seasons.

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Kratz had more to say about the intruder in the top of the eighth than his 21-pitch effort in the bottom half of the inning.

“You never know,” he said of the mix of bemusement and wariness in the Yankees’ dugout while the man delayed the game. “Shoot, the other night there was a drone that came over the field [during a game at Yankee Stadium]. You look at it and say, ‘Oh, cool, it’s a drone.’ Or you look at it and say, ‘You never know what it could be.’ So you just have to be aware. If you’re not aware, then something like that could sneak up on you.

“But when [the Red Sox fan] crawled over the wall there, I was like, ‘Man.’ That’s not what you’re thinking is going to happen.”

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