A squirrel ran Comerica Park and nobody could stop it

Baseball found its main character for the week, and it wasn't a player. During Monday night's Tigers-Orioles game at Comerica Park, a squirrel wandered onto the field around the 6th inning and turned the seventh-inning stretch into an honest-to-god manhunt. Grounds crew members poured out of the dugouts and bullpens, circling and lunging at a rodent that had clearly done more agility training than some of the guys chasing it.

Barstool Baseball

@StoolBaseball

Detroit had their entire grounds crew out there trying to catch this squirrel in between innings!!!

It wasn't a one-and-done chase either. This thing had legs. Every time it looked cornered near the warning track, it cut back and blew past another staffer diving at empty grass. Pardon My Take's account of it captures the chaos in real time, crew members converging near the wall only to watch the squirrel slip the trap again.

The squirrel eventually got mixed up in the actual baseball part of the night. Orioles outfielder Leody Taveras tried to scoop it up in right field, and it landed right in his glove before he shook it loose, saying afterward he was just trying to stop it and didn't want to squeeze it. Third-base coach Buck Britton reportedly tried tossing seeds to lure it in, and mascot PAWS held up a sign begging the crowd to "free the squirrel." It capped off with fans booing once the grounds crew finally wrapped the thing in a towel and carried it off the field.

None of this is even that rare for Comerica Park specifically, which has built a reputation over the years as a stop on the animal-delay circuit, but this one had everything: a real chase, real player involvement, and a real crowd reaction rooting for the underdog. Orioles manager Craig Albernaz summed it up best after the game, calling the whole thing nuts, and broadcaster Jason Benetti's live call turned into its own viral moment on top of the video itself.

StoolBaseball's recap of the night nailed the actual headline: the squirrel juked out every single member of the Tigers grounds crew and had a stadium's worth of trained professionals looking silly in a blender of missed dives and changed directions.

Barstool Baseball

@StoolBaseball

This Squirrel On The Field Juked Out Every Member Of The Tigers Grounds Crew And Had Them In A Blender @editti22

The score of the actual game got buried under all this, which tells you everything about how the night went. Baseball's dead-time delays have always been a strange kind of theater, and this one earns a spot near the top of the animal-interruption highlight reel until the next critter decides to make its own run at Comerica.