This Throw to Home Had Fans Doing a Double-Take

An overexuberant fan had people seeing double during the game between the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants. A ball was thrown on the field from the stands on a sacrifice fly by the Braves in the fourth inning Friday night, leading to a brief moment of confusion with two balls on the field at once (video here). The play in question came with the bases loaded and one out when the Braves' Sean Murphy hit a line out to right field, per the AP. His teammate Matt Olson easily beat Giant Mike Yastrzemski's one-hop throw home for Atlanta's first run of the game.

But just as Giants catcher Patrick Bailey was receiving the throw from Yastrzemski, another ball bounced toward the pitcher's mound after apparently being thrown on the field. "Where'd the other ball come from?" a baffled announcer asks on the TV broadcast. "Some clown threw the baseball onto the field," one of his colleagues replies, noting he thought it had come from the upper deck. The umpires briefly met to discuss the play, but no change was made, as the extra ball didn't impact the play.

"That's a first," Giants manager Bob Melvin said after the game. "I've never seen that before. I don't know where it came from. I don't know what the rule is. I think everybody was a little surprised by it. It didn't affect the play, but it was extremely odd to see another baseball come on the field." The Giants won the game 5-4 in 10 innings.