Members of the Red Sox bullpen were targeted by fans during Tuesday night’s game against the Orioles at Camden Yards.
As was first reported by WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford, several Red Sox relievers were not happy with the security near the visitors’ bullpen. A few pitchers were sprayed by beer and one staff member was even spat on.
“More than a few called it the worst they had ever seen,” Bradford tweeted late Tuesday night.
Reliever Richard Bleier confirmed such behavior when speaking with The Boston Globe’s Julian McWilliams prior to Wednesday afternoon’s series finale in Baltimore.
“Completely inappropriate,” Bleier said. “I played here and that’s not the fan base I remember. It was something I’ve never seen before.”
Bleieir, who spent parts of four seasons with the Orioles from 2017-2020, told McWilliams that the two alleged incidents involved different people, both of whom ran off. While the lefty said there was not much security could do in that situation, the O’s announced on Wednesday that those two fans were later identified and ejected from the ballpark.
Because of the design and location of the Camden Yards bullpens in left-center field, fans are right on top of the players. As such, they can easily banter with and heckle them if they so choose. Evidently, two of the 14,343 spectators who were in attendance on Tuesday made the decision to take things too far.
“It’s unfortunate, for sure,” said Bleier. “Hopefully they’re doing things that prevent this from happening again. It’s definitely not acceptable. … I’ve been in some rough areas in terms of bullpens where we’re, like, right in the middle of it, and I’ve never had that happen before.”
(Picture of Richard Bleier: Paul Rutherford/Getty Images)
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