Squirrel interrupts a tense Royals-Tigers game to provide comic relief for the crowd
Squirrel provides comic relief in Royals-Tigers game
Bottom of the eighth, the Royals and Tigers are tied at 6. A 2-2 count, 2 outs, with a runner at third and Anthony Gose facing Wade Davis. It's high tension. High drama. Would Gose line a single to take the lead? Would Davis strike him out to the end the inning? Butts were in seats, eyes were glued to screens and fingernails were in the process of being bitten.
And then ...
A squirrel rushed the field.
But not just any squirrel -- this was a comedian squirrel. This was a squirrel with brilliant comic timing, knowing just when he should leap out to diffuse the most tension.
Not only that, but he playfully gamed Ben Zobrist like he was a Marx Brother in "Duck Soup." "Sure, I'll let you chase me towards the foul line, but not all the way out of play," he was clearly thinking. "Once you think I'm happy being out of the action, I'll sprint toward center field! There's nothing you can do, puny human!"
"Oh yeah," he probably would have added if he could speak, "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my impossibly small pajamas that fit a squirrel, I'll never know."
Eventually, he would leave the field through the center-field fence, knowing that brevity is the soul of wit.
Oh, and as for the game: While Davis would get Gose to strike out to the end the eighth, the Tigers would end up winning, 8-6, thanks to Ian Kinsler's walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. No word on if the squirrel also invited himself to the postgame celebration.