Little crowd, big problem.
Some of the 10,202 Yankee Stadium fans made their presence felt in an ugly way Friday night, when they began throwing baseballs and other objects at the field during the bottom of the eighth inning of the Radios’ defeat 8-2 of the Yankees.
“You always worry when there’s a chance people are throwing things in the field,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I don’t know if it was baseball gift day. For whatever reason, one or two did and it seemed that there were 15 more that followed ”.
The crowd would have been bigger had it not been for New York’s COVID-19 restrictions. And by the time people started throwing things, people were smaller than the advertised figure: disgust in a game where the Yankees made three mistakes and had no runs at once through six innings. who had sent some to the exits.
Yankees manager Aaron Bonne is a third-generation baseball player who doesn’t remember witnessing a similar scene. He chose his words very carefully when he said “it looks bad to everyone.”
The apparent message: play better! – He was not lost to the Yankees, though the manner in which he surrendered was shameful.
“It was the first time I think I experienced it,” left footballer Clint Frazier said of fans throwing objects on the field. “You never want me to get to that, obviously, and hopefully we’ll play well enough until that happens again.”
Giancarlo Stanton’s thoughts focused on the safety of the players. The rays did not return to the shelter to take refuge.
“We hope he stops immediately and none of his players have been hit,” Stanton said. “You never want him to get to that point, but I just hoped he didn’t get to a point where they had to stop or call the game.”
“It had no effect” on the way the final outings were played, Cash noted.
“I have no idea what happened,” said Brandon Lowe, the batsman designated by Rays. “Suddenly, there was a ball in the center [field]. … He sent it to the group of fans who seemed to be asking for it. They were excited when they got it. And suddenly there are ten balls on the field.