Anyone who has followed baseball for a while knows that announcers sometimes mistakenly call a flyout a home run. Typically, these errors are evident and unquestionable. This makes it all the more intriguing that New York Yankees supporters wrongly accused announcer Michael Kay of flubbing a home run call during the Yankees’ 5-4 defeat to the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday evening.

As the Yankees were trailing by one run in the seventh inning, designated hitter Ben Rice launched a significant fly ball towards right field. Kay’s voice rose, anticipating the ball would reach the Eutaw Street warehouses just outside Camden Yards. “Driven deep to right field!” Kay proclaimed on the YES Network. Had Rice hit his ninth home run of the season?

No. Baltimore Orioles’ right fielder Heston Kjerstad snagged Rice’s ball on the warning track, concluding the inning and the Yankees’ seventh-inning surge. “Kjerstad back, he’s on the track, he’s gonna make the play in front of the wall,” Kay reported. Although Kay admitted Rice “gave it a run,” he never declared the ball a home run.

Yet, Yankees fans on X (formerly Twitter) criticized Kay, accusing him of completely missing the play. “Lmao Michael Kay absolutely thought Rice got that and it barely got to the warning track,” one X user posted. Another added: “Michael Kay had me thinking that was going off the [expletive] warehouses.”

Longtime Yankees radio announcer John Sterling often raised fans’ hopes with his iconic “It is high, it is far” home run call, only to quickly say the ball was caught at the wall, if it even reached that far. Kay, however, never claimed Rice hit a home run. The seasoned announcer simply expressed his enthusiasm before accurately calling it a flyout. “Michael Kay sterling,” an X user joked. “Wasn’t even close what is he watching.” Some supporters understandably blamed the YES Network/Prime Video cameras, but many others unjustly directed their frustration solely at Kay.