John Sterling — like Giancarlo Stanton — thought the slugger’s blast had left Fenway Park.
It didn’t.
During the first inning of Tuesday’s AL wild-card game between the Yankees and Red Sox at Fenway Park, Stanton drilled a Nathan Eovoldi pitch toward the Green Monster. As the ball traveled high into the Boston sky, Stanton stood at home plate while Sterling, the Yankees’ longtime radio voice, went into one of his signature home run calls.
“Drilled, there it goes. Deep left. It is high. It is far. It is gone!” Sterling said on the WFAN radio broadcast. “Out of the ballpark! A Stanton-ian home run.”
In reality, the ball made it only three quarters of the way up the Monster — 345 feet from home plate, according to Statcast — and caromed directly down in front of Boston left fielder Alex Verdugo.
As the ball was relayed into the infield with Stanton standing on first base for a long single, the 83-year-old Sterling — who was in attendance at Fenway after having broadcast most road games from Yankee Stadium due to the pandemic — was still unsure what happened.
“Now what did I do wrong?” he asked. “What did I see wrong? He’s at first base.”
Sterling, who has been calling Yankees games since 1989, has a history of botched calls in recent years.
But he wasn’t the only announcer who believed Stanton added another home run in Boston after a torrid series there late last month.
ESPN’s Matt Vasgersian also got excited as the ball left Stanton’s bat, saying, “Oh he got another one. He got another one!”
Vasgersian did quickly correct himself as the ball hit the wall.
“No. It’s off the Monster,” he said. “And Stanton, who put it into the home run trot thinking the same thing I was is satisfied with a single.”