Watch: Royals OF Kyle Isbel smashes light on Fenway Park’s Green Monster for bizarre ground-rule double
The ground-rule double ultimately benefited the Red Sox by preventing a Kansas City baserunner from scoring.
In Fenway Park’s 111-year history, there have been thousands upon thousands of baseballs that have clanged, clunked and ricocheted off of the fabled Green Monster in left field.
But Wednesday night’s game between the Red Sox and Royals represented an apparent first among the extensive damage doled out against Boston’s wall.
In the top of the second inning, Kansas City outfielder Kyle Isbel drove a four-seam fastball from Nick Pivetta to the opposite field in left. Red Sox left fielder Masataka Yoshida tried to track down the sinking liner, making a leaping attempt right at the warning track.
At first glance, it looked like Yoshida was able to snag the ball. But it managed to land directly behind him and smashed the light fixture signaling one of the “OUT” labels on the Sox scoreboard.
Along with shattering the light, Isbel’s line drive ended up being stuck within the shattered display. It was ultimately ruled a ground-rule double.
As bizarre as the sequence was, the Red Sox actually managed to benefit from it. The ground-rule double ruling kept KC third baseman Matt Duffy from scoring from first (had the ball instead ricocheted off the wall and rolled away from Yoshida).
With Duffy held to third base, Pivetta got Maikel Garcia to fly out to right field to strand two Royals runners in scoring position.
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