ONLY IN NEW YORK CAN CREEPY RIGHT-FIELD FANS OVERTAKE THE WORLD SERIES

The Dodgers lost Game 4 but Yankee Stadium lost during a fan interference episode, when Austin Capobianco and John Peter were ejected after assaulting Mookie Betts’ glove during a first-inning catch

     To be fair, in a ballpark of unjust shenanigans, the Dodgers wouldn’t have used Brent Honeywell and Landon Knack and the boyfriend of a celebrated coach who runs the University of North Carolina’s field hockey team. They’d have employed Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone and perhaps someone named Clayton Kershaw.

     All were part of a warped pitching staff that made beelines to the doctor’s office and the injured list. This allowed 38-year-old Austin Capobianco to devolve into the Yankee Stadium assclown who ruled post-game discussions about how not to act at a World Series game — or anywhere else in public life. He and another fan lurking down the right-field line performed surgery on Mookie Betts’ fielder’s glove, yanking the ball from the web after he made a first-inning catch and knocking it onto the field.

     The debacle made Steve Bartman, the Chicago Cubs’ fan who caught a foul ball 21 years ago, look like a saint. Anthony Volpe and the Yankees won Game 4. New York lost with a sickening moment of fan intrusion, reminding us what happened in foul territory on 161st Street wouldn’t take place in saner American sports venues. When Capobianco was removing the ball, John Peter gripped Betts’ non-glove hand.

     “We always joke about the ball in our area,” Capobianco later told ESPN at a bar. “We’re not going to go out of our way to attack. If it’s in our area, we’re going to ‘D’ up. Someone defends, someone knocks the ball. We talk about it. We’re willing to do this.”

     Can you imagine this person voting in the presidential election? Can you imagine the Yankees allowing him to own season tickets? Why wasn’t he in jail?

     “And then Mookie was swearing at us. Not good,” said Capobianco’s brother, Darren, speaking to The Athletic.

     As a veteran of East Coast madness after playing previously in Boston, Betts was irate when Capobianco and his friend, Peter, were ejected by security. “When it comes to the person in play, it doesn’t matter,” the right fielder said. “We lost. It’s irrelevant. I’m fine. He’s fine. Everything’s cool. We lost the game and that’s what I’m kind of focused on. We got to turn the page and get ready for tomorrow.”

     We have no idea what comes next. The Yankees trail the Series, 3-1, and have one home game remaining tonight. Will someone pull out a switchblade? Fans applauded Capobianco and Peter as they were removed.

     “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Ben Casparius, the rookie pitcher who started for the Dodgers and dates Erin Matson, known as the Michael Jordan of her sport.

     You might wonder a bit about Dave Roberts, as Dodgers fans often do. Before anyone castigates the manager for toying with a big Series lead, please understand why he used lesser arm talent Tuesday night. He didn’t think he would win as Volpe hit a grand slam and led the Yankees to an 11-4 victory. Roberts was plotting out Game 5, if not 6 and 7. Some would call it an embrace of suicide. He decided it was playtime.

     “It’s challenging. I think you’ve got to be certain that you can score some runs,” he said. “Certainly any guy we use tonight would have not been able to pitch tomorrow.”

     Thus, Honeywell was inserted in the eighth inning when the Yankees led by only two runs. He allowed five runs. Why not use a better reliever and chase a Series sweep? “No. Not 6-4 in the eighth it wasn’t. No,” Roberts said.

     Rather than bury him at this point, let’s realize the Dodgers are one win from a championship and have three recently accomplished starters pitching tonight and, if necessary, Friday and Saturday nights in Los Angeles. You know their names: Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler. Roberts will need Blake Treinen, his best reliever. Daniel Hudson, who had thrown 22 pitches in Game 3, was handpicked for the third inning. Volpe nailed him.

     “That was his inning,” Roberts said. “I think he was at 20 pitches, something like that. He had Volpe up, so I’m not going to get somebody in the third inning to get Volpe when he just popped a guy up.”

     Said Volpe: “I was hustling. I didn’t know I got it. And then I blacked out.”

     Because of injuries and other circumstances, Roberts relies on bullpen games. One didn’t work against the Mets in the National League championship series. One didn’t work against the Yankees. “We knew it was a bullpen game,” the manager said. “As far as outcomes — to have six guys in your pen that are feeling good, rested, I feel good about that. And being up 3-1.”

     And having Freddie Freeman, who homered for the fourth consecutive game.

     Deal with that, Austin Capobianco.

     Leave all weapons at home.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.