Critters get their running reps in during EL action

Who let the animals out in the Eastern League?

Wildlife briefly interrupted Wednesday's action at two different Double-A ballparks in Pennsylvania -- first a squirrel in the New Hampshire-Reading game, and then a skunk in the Bowie-Harrisburg contest.

Squirrel delays are nothing new at Minor League games -- in fact, over the years they've led to some of the most entertaining and humorous moments on-field, especially when a team of grown men takes a comically long time to wrangle a small rodent.

This wasn’t the case in the Reading sighting as the squirrel left on its own, but its brief time on the field at FirstEnergy Stadium was glorious. The little guy seemed to want to run the bases -- it scooted from the area around first base right down the basepath to second, but it needed a breather around shortstop and Fisher Cats shortstop Orelvis Martinez (the fourth-ranked Blue Jays prospect) took a big step to his left to avoid any confrontation.

The squirrel then continued to run around the third-base line and back to short, appearing to pause briefly to soak up the adulation from the crowd cheering it on. Someone should get the sprint speed on this critter, it went from first to third really quickly!

The situation proved to be more of an immediate concern over in Harrisburg, where a skunk infiltrated the game in the eighth inning of a one-run contest. Bowie broadcaster Matt Sabados captured the surprise of it all perfectly when he smoothly transitioned from normal play-by-play to exclaiming, “Oh my goodness, we’ve got a skunk in left field! Look at it go!”

Today's game entered into a brief delay in the eighth, a SKUNK delay.@SabadosSports didn't miss a beat on the play-by-play. pic.twitter.com/xlkC1B2OxS

— Bowie Baysox (@BowieBaysox) May 11, 2023

In fact, given that a skunk can be ... shall we diplomatically say aromatic? ... Sabados stayed pretty subdued about the whole thing. Apparently it wasn't the first time for such an appearance in Harrisburg.

The odorous creature trolled around left field for a couple of minutes -- driving No. 2 Nationals prospect Robert Hassell III in center and left fielder Yasel Antuna out of position -- until a member of the grounds crew decided enough was enough. The sound of a human jogging toward it was enough to spook the skunk back, and the two looked like they were participating in a slow race along the warning track until the critter slipped under the center-field wall. The Senators wisely kept their distance.

At the end of the day, it gives one paws ... er, pause. They should have to pay to watch the ballgame just like the rest of us. Regular humans get banned for life if they run out onto the field like that!