Things got squirrely for Pirates, Cubs at PNC Park

There are no trees inside PNC Park, but a squirrel wormed his way onto the playing field Monday night, briefly interrupting play before the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Michael Chavis stepped to the plate in the second inning.

While many in the crowd of 11,312 cheered and laughed, head groundskeeper Matt Brown and two of his workers — carrying a large net and a bucket — chased the squirrel along the base of the left field wall. The squirrel initially appeared to enter the field from the third-base stands.

This squirrel has come into PNC park and caused an absolute ruckus. The Pirates booth is fascinated with it! pic.twitter.com/WiYKup5s67

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 20, 2022

Despite the best efforts of Brown’s crew, the squirrel escaped, slipping inside the Chicago Cubs bullpen. Play resumed, and the squirrel did not appear again.

A buzz started to spread through the crowd while Pirates designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach was batting. He eventually drew a walk — while the squirrel was in play — causing play-by-play man Greg Brown to ask on AT&T Sportsnet, “What if the squirrel distracted (Cubs pitcher) Caleb Kilian?”

Maybe. Maybe not. But Kilian proceeded to walk Chavis and Cubs second baseman Jonathan Villar dropped Oneil Cruz’s groundball after order was restored.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton weighs in on the squirrelly situation in the outfield during Pirates-Cubs game Monday night at PNC Park. pic.twitter.com/c5SKdxntLh

— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) June 21, 2022

Color analyst Bob Walk asked the question on everyone’s mind: “Where does this squirrel live? There are no trees out there.”

After the game, Pirates manager Derek Shelton wondered why the squirrel created so much commotion.

“Very inefficient. No. 1, I don’t know why we’re pulling a squirrel off the field,” he said. “Let’s let him play. Let’s let him run. Let’s let him run rampant. He wasn’t bothering anybody. He runs into the bullpen and we get chaos. What was his sprint speed? We have to get that in the Statcast.

“As good as Matt Brown is, bad squirrel extraction.”

When Shelton was asked by the Tribune-Review’s Kevin Gorman if the chase was one of the better rundowns he’s seen, Shelton responded, “Definitely one of the worst rundowns I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a couple bad ones.”