The Tampa Bay Rays were eliminated from the postseason with their AL Wild Card loss to the Texas Rangers on Wednesday, and longtime announcer Sean McDonough kicked them on their way out the door.
The Rangers steadily built a lead en route to a 7-1 victory over Tampa Bay. Texas was leading 4-0 in the top of the 5th inning when Corey Seager reached. Seager then advanced to third on a single from Robbie Grossman, at which point fans at Tropicana Field began to boo.
McDonough, who was calling the game for ESPN, used that as an opportunity to take a shot at the Rays over their poor attendance.
“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 said.
Official attendance for Wednesday’s game was 20,198. It looked like there were far fewer people at the ballpark than that. The attendance figure was slightly higher than the announced crowd of 19,704 for Game 1, which was the lowest attendance for an MLB postseason game since the 1919 World Series.
The Rays completely fell apart on defense in Game 1, and they were unable to get the bats going in Game 2. They could not have had a much worse finish after an outstanding 99-63 regular season.
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