Small crowd, big problem.
Some of the 10,202 fans at Yankee Stadium made their presence felt in an ugly way Friday night when they began throwing baseballs and other objects onto the field during the bottom of the eighth inning of the Yankees 8-2 loss to the Rays.
You are always concerned when theres a chance people are throwing stuff onto the field, Rays manager Kevin Cash said. I dont know if it was baseball giveaway day. For whatever reason, one or two did it and it seemed like there were 15 others that followed.
The crowd wouldve been larger if not for New Yorks COVID-19 restrictions. And by the point at which people started throwing things, the crowd was smaller than the announced figure: disgust in a game in which the Yankees committed three errors and had no runs on one hit through six innings had sent some to the exits.
Yankees fans started throwing balls onto the field during the eighth inning of their loss to the Rays.
N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg
Yankees manager Aaron Bonne is a third-generation baseball lifer and cant remember witnessing a similar scene. He chose his words very carefully in saying it looks bad for everyone.
The apparent message play better! wasnt lost on the Yankees, even if the form in which it was delivered was embarrassing.
That was the first time that I think Ive experienced that, left fielder Clint Frazier said of the fans throwing items onto the field. You never want it to come to that, obviously, and hopefully moving forward we play well enough to where that does not happen again.
Giancarlo Stantons thoughts turned to player safety. The Rays did not return to the dugout for shelter.
Hopefully it would stop immediately and that none of their players got hit, Stanton said. You never want it to get to that point, but I was just hoping it didnt come to a point where they had to stop or call the game.
It had no effect on the way the final outs were played, Cash pointed out.
I have no idea what happened, Rays designated hitter Brandon Lowe said. All of a sudden there was a ball in center [field]. Tossed it to the group of fans that looked like they were asking for it. They were excited when they got it. And then all of a sudden theres 10 balls on the field.
