Fan interference in Yankees-Rays game brings back bad Astros' memory for Alex Bregman
· Yahoo Sports
Alex Bregman probably was just trying to begin the early days of his offseason by relaxing with some playoff baseball on the TV when what he saw Wednesday night gave him flashbacks to a rough night in Denver more than eight years ago.
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The New York Yankees were swept by the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Division with a 4-3 loss that was marred by a fan interference call that went against the home team. In Game 3 of the ALDS, Yankees infielder Anthony Volpe thought he had hit a game-tying two-run homer in the sixth inning, but the call was overturned by replay when a fan was ruled to have reached over the left-field wall and snagged the ball over the glove of Rays' left fielder Victor Mesa Jr. After a lengthy review, umpires ruled the ball would not have cleared the fence but also wouldn't have been caught, so Volpe was given a double, and the runner from first was allowed to score. Volpe, however, was left stranded at the end of the inning.
ANTHONY VOLPE'S GAME-TYING HOMER IS OVERTURNED DUE TO FAN INTERFERENCE 😳😱 https://t.co/obDrEHsd6j
- TNT Sports U.S. (@TNTSportsUS) October 8, 2026
All of that had Bregman, who finished his first season with the Chicago Cubs last week by getting swept by the San Diego Padres in the wild-card round, thinking back to his Astros days.
"I hit that same ball LF in 2018 at Coors … They called me out after review from fan interference," Bregman posted on Twitter immediately after the play before eventually deleting the tweet. "Has there been a fan interference rule modification since? I want my double."
Bregman, who rarely posts on Twitter these days, concluded the post with two crying laughing emojis, but the former Astros star wasn't laughing in 2018.
"It was a f- joke," he told the Houston Chronicle on July 25, 2018. "And they should be f- ashamed of themselves."
On that night, Bregman led off the sixth inning with a ball deep to left. Rockies left fielder Gerardo Parra leaped backwards and reached his glove above the wall, only for a fan wearing an Astros' Justin Verlander jersey to reach out and have the ball nick his glove and land on the warning track while Bregman raced to third for what he thought was a leadoff triple.
After Rockies manager Bud Black asked for the play to be reviewed, replay officials in New York determined the Astros fan had prevented Parra from making the catch and ruled Bregman out. Bregman was irate, flinging his helmet and yelling at the umpires as Astros manager A.J. Hinch came out to argue.
The difference from the call in Wednesday's Yankees-Rays call is that replay officials in 2018 ruled that Parra could have made the catch against the Astros, which only further infuriated Bregman following the game, which Houston lost 3-2 on a ninth-inning walkoff.
"Obviously the guy has never played f- baseball before in his life, the guy in charge of whoever made that decision," Bregman said that night. "There is no possible way you can say a left fielder jumping backwards into a wall is guaranteed to make a catch. It changed the whole f- game. We're up 2-1 at the time, I'm at third base. We need a fly ball to the outfield to get me in and it's 3-1. It's f- horrible."
The Astros, who were defending World Series champions at the time, still went on to reach the American League Championship Series that year and the 24-year-old Bregman had an excellent season, hitting .286 with 31 home runs and 103 RBIs. He also led all of baseball with 51 doubles.
Sounds like he thinks it should be 52.
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There’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Fan interference in Yankees-Rays game brings back bad Astros' memory for Alex Bregman.