The Class-A Charleston RiverDogs saw an unexpected visitor Tuesday night, but a familiar one all the same. The RiverDogs, a South Atlantic League affiliate of the New York Yankees, famously had a fox regularly interrupt games at their Joseph P. Riley Jr. Ballpark in 2016, but the fox wasn’t seen for most of last year. It (presuming it’s the same fox) came back in the first-game of a double-header Tuesday, though, disrupting play in the eighth inning (extra innings, as a rainout Monday led to the doubleheader and to both games being scheduled for seven innings). Rob Terranova of MiLB.com
The rally fox emerged from the third base dugout in the eighth inning of the first game of the RiverDogs’ doubleheader against Columbia. With the score tied, 5-5, play was halted momentarily as it ran out to right field, then scurried away at Shoeless Joe’s Hill.
When play resumed, Charleston shortstop Wilkerman Garcia stepped to the plate with Jason Lopez at second base, where he began the inning. After taking a pitch and fouling off another, Garcia did not miss the next one. The 20-year-old turned around a fastball from Carlos Hernandez (0-1) and blasted it high over the wall in right field for a walk-off roundtripper that gave Charleston a 7-5 victory.
“You know, I didn’t even really realize what was going on when they stopped play. I was just focused on my at-bat,” said Garcia, who had never hit a walk-off homer in his career. “When I stepped in, I was sitting fastball, hoping to get a good one to drive. Then he threw me one middle-in and I took advantage of it.
“I put a good swing on it, and man, it was a great feeling. I was so happy.”
Here’s a photo and video of that from the team:
Don’t worry that walk-off wasn’t magic.
We have the rally fox to thank, in his first appearance of the season in the bottom of the 8th!
🦊⚾️ pic.twitter.com/fdKZm7Z0Ji
— Charleston RiverDogs (@ChasRiverDogs) April 25, 2018
No really.
100% chance of a walk-off after a rally fox appearance in 2018.
🦊🦊🦊 pic.twitter.com/tlePDXqstr
— Charleston RiverDogs (@ChasRiverDogs) April 25, 2018
They also followed this up with a good tweet:
@MLBONFOX thought you guys might be interested….🦊🦊🦊🦊⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️
— Charleston RiverDogs (@ChasRiverDogs) April 25, 2018
And the fox-inspired success continued into the second game, which Charleston won 2-1. So having a fox around seems to work out very well for them indeed.
[MiLB.com; photo from the RiverDogs on Twitter]
