Orioles-Phillies Game Halted By Bizarre Interruptions

Most baseball games feature a break in the seventh inning for fans to stretch, but this one was different.

The Baltimore Orioles were cruising along against the Philadelphia Phillies in Sunday afternoon's series finale at Camden Yards. The Orioles led 8-2 in the top of the seventh with one out and nobody on. Cionel Perez had an 0-2 count on Nick Castellanos and seemed poised to finish him off.

Then, out of nowhere, an F-35 Lightning fighter jet unexpectedly roared over the field, drawing the attention of all 44,525 fans in attendance. Home plate umpire Mike Estabrook wisely stopped the game until the plane disappeared from view, at which point he allowed play to resume.

A fighter jet keeps interrupting the Phillies/Orioles game in Baltimore and it’s the funniest thing ever. The ump would like to throw out the fighter pilot #phillies #orioles #baseball #fathersday pic.twitter.com/Mqp5fetyKM
— Adam Tuss (@AdamTuss) June 16, 2024

Perez recovered to strike out Castellanos, but the interruption may have thrown off his rhythm. He allowed back-to-back doubles to Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm before getting Bryson Stott to ground out to end the frame.

Baltimore finished the game without incident, rolling to an 8-3 victory and a series win over the NL-leading Phillies.

The seventh-inning pause was just one of several fighter-induced stoppages during the game.

While flyovers are not unusual at baseball games, they are typically reserved for special occasions like Opening Day, national holidays and playoff games. Furthermore, they always take place during a ceremony before the contest, usually during the national anthem.

These jets were not associated with Sunday's baseball game. They were part of Baltimore's Fleet Week air shows and merely happened to be flying over the city.

After the game, team color commentator Ben McDonald jokingly took credit on social media for operating one of the planes, referencing an old Top Gun-themed magazine cover of him and Mike Mussina dressed like fighter pilots.

I would like to apologize for the fly over today at #OriolePark during the @Phillies vs @Orioles game….me and #Moose still like to go fast! See you soon #Birdland pic.twitter.com/stSjrzGEsg pic.twitter.com/RE3TpzJSpW
— Ben McDonald (@realbenmcdonald) June 17, 2024

Fortunately, the frequent flyovers didn't seem to bother the Orioles, who pounded NL Cy Young candidate Zack Wheeler for eight runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings, including four home runs. That was more than enough run support for AL Cy Young candidate Corbin Burnes, who tossed six innings of two-run ball and improved to 8-2 with a 2.14 ERA.

Baltimore is on the road this week, so it won't have to worry about any more distractions from pilots.

The Orioles get a brief break with an off-day on Monday before resuming their brutal June schedule against the New York Yankees in the Bronx on Tuesday.

Baltimore will look to keep gaining ground on the Yankees, whose lead in the AL East is down to 1.5 games after back-to-back losses to the Boston Red Sox over the weekend.