Small crowd, big deal.
Some of the 10,202 fans at Yankee Stadium made their presence felt ugly on Friday night when they started throwing baseballs and other items onto the field in the bottom of the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 8-2 loss to the Rays .
“You always worry if there is a chance that people will throw things on the field,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. ‘I don’t know if it was baseball day. For whatever reason, one or two did and it looked like fifteen more to follow. “
The crowd would have been bigger had it not been for the COVID-19 restrictions in New York. And the moment people started throwing things, the crowd was smaller than the announced number: disgust in a game where the Yankees committed three errors and had no runs on one hit through six innings had sent some to the exit.
Yankees manager Aaron Bonne is a third-generation baseball player and cannot recall witnessing a similar scene. He chose his words very carefully saying “it looks bad on everyone”.
The apparent message – play better! – was not lost on the Yankees, even if the form in which it was delivered was embarrassing.
“That was the first time I think I’ve experienced that,” said leftfielder Clint Frazier of the fans throwing items onto the field. “Of course you never want it to come to that, and hopefully ahead, we will play well enough to where that doesn’t happen anymore.”
Giancarlo Stanton thought about player safety. The Rays did not return to the dugout for shelter.
“Hopefully it would stop immediately and none of their players got hit,” said Stanton. “You never want it to happen, but I just hoped it wouldn’t get to the point where they had to stop or call the game.”
It had “no effect” on the way the final outs were played, Cash noted.
“I have no idea what happened,” said Ray’s designated hitter Brandon Lowe. “Suddenly there was a ball in the middle [field]… Threw it to the group of fans who looked like they were asking for it. They were thrilled when they got it. And then suddenly 10 balls are on the field. “