As the American League Wildcard Series came to a close on Wednesday at Tropicana Field in Tampa, one of the major storylines was the fact that the attendance in central Florida was extremely poor. How bad? Well, the game one attendance of 19,704 (Texas Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0), was the worst attended game for a Major League Baseball postseason matchup since 1919 when 13,923 fans saw the Chicago White Sox beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-1 in game seven of the World Series at Cincinnati’s Redland Field. It should be noted that the attendance figures exclude the games earlier this decade when there was spectator limitations during playoff games because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Game Two Attendance not too much better
There were only 20,198 spectators who watched the Rangers beat the Rays 7-1. While games played this week in Minnesota, Milwaukee and Philadelphia were capacity crowds, it was embarrassing for MLB to have one postseason series played in a stadium that had less than 50% capacity.
Rays Fan Base Roasted by ESPN
Sean McDonough, the play-by-play man for ABC/ESPN even commented on the attendance. He stated, “some boos starting to come down from the group. I’m not sure we can call it a crowd. The group here at the Trop.” McDonough also made all television viewers aware of the historically bad attendance from game one with the 1919 postseason reference.
Rays struggled defensively
One reason why Texas is off to the American League Divisional Series is because the Rays struggled defensively. In two games, Tampa Bay committed five errors, including four errors in game one. The four errors the Rays committed on Tuesday were the most number of errors they have ever made in a single postseason game in franchise history.
Who do the Rangers play next?
Texas will play the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Divisional Series. Baltimore will be without their closer Felix Bautista of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, who is to have Tommy John Surgery.
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