Beer can narrowly misses Orioles Kim in ugly wildcard

By Steve Keating

TORONTO (Reuters) – The Baltimore Orioles season ended with a gut-wrenching 5-2 extra-innings loss and an ugly incident on Tuesday when outfielder Kim Hyun-soo was nearly struck in the head with a can of beer while making a catch.

With the scored tied 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning Kim settled under a Melvin Upton Jr. fly ball when a can of beer was hurled from the outfield bleachers, narrowly missing the South Korean.

While Kim looked stunned team mate center fielder Adam Jones angrily gestured towards the howling crowd while police rushed into the section.

There was no immediate word if police had charged or removed anyone from the stadium.

“I don’t like it, nobody likes it,” said Orioles manager Buck Showalter.

“I’m sure the Toronto Blue Jays don’t like it but it’s tough when you have that many people in the ballpark and one person does something that reflects poorly on them.

“I don’t like anything about it, it put our guys in harms way. It was just unfortunate.

“We were fortunate and lucky Kim didn’t get hit.”

Showalter was far more understanding than many American baseball fans who took to social media to vent their outrage.

Best-selling author Stephen King turned to Twitter to ask his 2.38 million followers: “Hey, whatever happened to polite Canadians?”

It marked the second consecutive postseason that unruly Blue Jays fans have tossed bottles and cans on the field.

During Game Five of last year’s American League Division Series play was stopped when unhappy fans showered the field with debris, showering a mother and child.

(Editing by Andrew Both)