His proposal went viral after he was tackled in the Dodgers outfield, but his girlfriend almost missed it

Stephani Gutierrez’s boyfriend snuck into the Dodger Stadium outfield to ask for her hand in marriage, and video of the proposal has gone viral after he was tackled by security.

But she almost missed the romantic, albeit violent, scene.

The Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the Arizona Diamondbacks during their season opener Thursday. It was a brisk night, and Ricardo Juárez didn’t know how he would propose to his girlfriend, but he had a ring.

He decided it would have to be at a Dodgers game because of the couple’s love for the team.

“My thought was that I would ask her from where we were sitting and, I don’t know, that maybe the cameras would look at me so that we would be on the big screen,” Juárez said in Spanish during an interview with The Times.

As to why he decided to run onto the field to propose?

“Just show your wives that you love them,” Juárez said. “Tell them the truth, always fight, treat them with love and do everything for them, because well, she is the love of your life.”

The stunt led to Juarez getting held by Dodgers security, cited and banned from the park for a year.

VIDEO | 00:07

Marriage proposal in outfield at Dodger Stadium ends with a big hit

A marriage proposal in outfield at Dodger Stadium ends with a big hit. (Margorie Molina-Garcia)

But in the end, Gutierrez accepted her boyfriend’s proposal.

She was identified in a previous Times story by her Instagram handle, Ramona Saavedra.

A self-described “cachanilla,” a nickname for locals from Mexicali, Baja California, Juárez arrived in California 13 years ago and worked as a dishwasher at a sushi restaurant in Riverside.

His managers were inspired by his work ethic and asked if he wanted to learn how to prepare sushi, said Juárez, 35. Over the years, he worked as a caterer and built a following of loyal customers as a sushi chef.

Gutierrez and Juárez met three years ago on his boat at a party on Lake Perris in Moreno Valley.

She was a single mother of three. He worried that she didn’t have anyone to rely on for help. The two spoke over Instagram and started to date. They have a 1-year-old son and a shared love for the Dodgers.

Gutierrez is working to get her degree as a respiratory therapist. Juárez is the family’s sole provider.

The couple had talked about getting married before, but their financial situation kept them from taking the leap, Gutierrez said.

They agreed that they would wait for Gutierrez to finish school before getting married.

But Juárez couldn’t wait. When a friend invited them to a Dodgers game, Juárez decided that was where he would propose.

“I didn’t even have enough money for the [Dodgers] game,” he said with a laugh.

Juárez saved to buy a ring; he also borrowed from friends and promised to pay them back. He put money down on a ring from the Curacao department store in San Bernardino, he said.

Before Juarez ran onto the outfield to propose, Gutierrez, 33, was upset with him because he didn’t walk her to the restroom during the seventh-inning stretch.

“I was walking back from the bathroom, and he kept calling me and saying, ‘You’re going to be on TV,’ but I couldn’t understand what he was saying,” she said.

When she got back to her seat, she heard yelling from the stands. That’s when she saw Juárez on the field, on one knee, with what looked like a ring in his hand.

“I was looking for Stephani, so she could see that I was asking her to marry me,” Juárez said.

On the field, a security guard tackled him to the ground, eliciting shouts and applause from the stands.

“All I could think about was the ring,” said Juárez, who dropped it as he was tackled.

Representatives for the Dodgers declined to comment on the incident.

Of the proposal, Gutierrez said, “I barely caught it. I don’t even know if I had a chance to be excited. I was so scared about what was going to happen to him.”

She ran down the stairs to the field as security guards led Juárez away, amid the roaring crowd.

“I was yelling and telling them in English, ‘My ring, my ring,’” Juárez said. “That’s the only thing that mattered.”

After Juarez was detained by security, Gutierrez pleaded with staff to let him go because he had to work the next day and she had to attend school.

“I told security, please, please,” she said. “I told them, ‘I don’t know what he’s thinking. He’s drunk.’”

The staff at Dodger Stadium explained that Juárez would be cited and banned for a year but would be released later that night, Gutierrez said.

She admitted that she was scared, because the couple had made their way to the game on a party bus, and their car was parked in Long Beach. She didn’t know exactly where Juárez was being taken, and his phone was low on battery power. Plus, he was probably a bit drunk, she said.

When Juárez was released, police gave him a bag with his possessions. The first thing he did was search for the ring. It was in the bag.

A friend picked him up and drove him back to Gutierrez, who was waiting at the party bus.

“We met each other, he got on his knees, and he proposed again,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said she took Juárez to the hospital a few days later because he was unable to get out of bed due to pain from the on-field tackle. Doctors told him he had no broken bones but cleared him to skip work for four days and gave him an injection for inflammation, she said.