The Houston Astros found themselves trailing by a couple of runs midway through their contest against the New York Yankees on Sunday. The last thing Houston needed was for an Astros fan to serve as a fourth outfielder against them in Minute Maid Park.
Astros All-Star Yordan Alvarez came up to the plate with the home team trailing 3-1 in the sixth inning. The 6-foot-5 slugger, on a full count, sliced the ball along the left-field foul line.
Yankees left fielder Everson Pereira tracked it down but didn’t get a chance to field it cleanly after a fan’s outstretched arm changed the trajectory of the ball, as seen below:
Pereira appeared to have a good chance of making the grab and getting Alvarez out anyway. But diving catches while hurtling toward an outfield wall are never as easy as they look. It was at least not a guaranteed out for the Astros compared to the definitive fan interference ruling.
The Astros were struggling up to that point against Yankees pitching. They had just one run on five hits up to that point, with one of the hits coming from Alvarez.
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