A fan fell from stands into Royals’ bullpen during Wednesday’s game at White Sox
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- A fan fell from the stands into the Royals’ bullpen during Wednesday night’s game.
- Play was briefly stopped in the fourth inning while staff attended the injured fan.
- The fan was taken from the bullpen on a stretcher and transported to a hospital.
A fan was injured after falling from the stands into the Royals’ bullpen during Wednesday night’s game against the White Sox at Rate Field.
Play was briefly stopped in the fourth inning as the fan was being attended to in the visiting team’s bullpen. All the Royals’ pitchers huddled by the gate to the field, well away from where the fan landed.
The incident took place in the third inning, when Chase Meidroth hit a sacrifice fly that scored Miguel Vargas.
“He jumped up to celebrate and fell over,” White Sox fan Zach Kreigler said of the man. “He just got excited and flipped over. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. I just hope he’s OK.”
The fan was taken from the bullpen on a stretcher and a worker later could be seen cleaning up an area with a towel.
There is a short railing in the right-field stands above the bullpen, and the man fell at least 10 feet, if not more.
“His buddy tried to grab (him) when he fell,” said another White Sox fan, Emily Dvorak. “He tried to grab his legs when they were up in the air.”
A video showed the fan didn’t appear to land on his head. Dvorak said the fan was breathing as paramedics were working on him.
“From what I’ve heard, the fan was kind of standing up on the edge of the bullpen,” Royals relief pitcher Nick Mears said, “and kind of just went over. And then (we) saw him lying there.
“Some guys heard some stuff (after the man fell), but I personally didn’t.”
The Royals lost 6-5 to the White Sox, but that was secondary to Mears.
“Baseball is just a game when it comes to that stuff. In my mind, obviously human lives are something different,” Mears said. “So I mean, (we were) kind of just creating space for all of the people to come in and try to help him out — just trying to make sure that he had the best care that he could get in that moment was kind of our priority.”
It took a moment for medical personnel to get to the man after an apparent communication mix-up.
“I came up here (to the locker room) for a second and a paramedic was trying to get down,” Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino said. “They had heard it was happening in the dugout, like there was a miscommunication of something happening in the dugout.
“I had heard, ‘fan in the dugout,’ and because it was cold, I thought to be honest they were talking about the heater. I thought they were trying to get somebody to go fix the heater, but I was like, ‘Why would they have a paramedic? That doesn’t (make sense), you know?’ And then I heard a fan fell in the bullpen.”
The White Sox announced during the game that the fan was transported to a local hospital for additional treatment.
“We were talking with the security guard down in the bullpen at the time, and he said that by the time he (the fan) got to the hospital, he was in much better condition,” Mears said.
There was no update on the man’s condition following the game.
This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 8:30 PM with the headline "A fan fell from stands into Royals’ bullpen during Wednesday’s game at White Sox."
