The Tampa Bay Rays’ ALCS Game 4 win should have been the story Saturday night. Instead, the focus quickly shifted to the crowd at their watch party inside Tropicana Field.
Tampa Bay opened its home venue for fans to follow the game on the Jumbotron, and one Rays supporter posted a video of the experience online. What followed was a wave of jokes about how thin the gathering looked, turning the watch party into the latest talking point surrounding the team’s fanbase.
That kind of reaction is hardly new for the Rays. Tampa Bay finished 28th in MLB this season in average attendance, drawing roughly 17,000 fans per game. Only the Miami Marlins and Athletics were lower.
The online chatter around the franchise has been building, too. The Athletic recently published a piece focused on the Rays’ low attendance during the playoffs, and Saturday’s footage gave critics more fuel.
The watch party itself had already been a bargain attraction. The Rays allegedly charged as little as $5 for their Game 3 watch party on Oct. 15, though that low price did not appear to bring in a big crowd.
That game’s start time was moved from 6 p.m. ET to 1 p.m.
ET because of bad weather in Cleveland.
All of it comes as Tampa Bay sits on the edge of something bigger. The Rays are closing in on the World Series for just the third time in franchise history, and they still have never won one.
The Guardians will host Game 5 on Sunday at 5:08 p.m. ET, and the series then heads back to Tampa Bay for Game 6 and, if necessary, Game 7.
In Other News...
Kevin Cashs Game 4 Pitching Move Changed The Rays ALCS Stakes
The Rays found a way to change the tone of the American League Championship Series in Game 4, and part of it came from a move that gave Kevin Cash a little more flexibility than usual. Freddy Peralta, who had already started and won Game 2, was available out of the bullpen for the 7-3 win over Cleveland, and Cash said the right-hander was eager to help in whatever role the team needed. Peralta handled a brief outing well, giving Tampa Bay another arm when the game tightened and helping the Rays even the series at two games apiece.
The bigger picture now shifts to Game 5, where the pitching plan becomes even more important with the ALCS hanging in the balance. Cash confirmed Drew Rasmussen will get the start, and the Rays enter the next game with a chance to take control after surviving a pivotal swing game on the road. For a club that has leaned into creative usage all October, the question is no longer just who starts, but how far Cash is willing to push his options as the series moves into its most pressure-packed stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Finally Found What They Needed With Season On The Line
With their season hanging in the balance, the Rays found the steadiness they had been searching for and forced the Guardians to keep playing under pressure. Tampa Bay mixed timely offense with crisp work in the field and enough pitching to keep Cleveland from ever fully settling in, a combination that was missing when the series tilted toward the brink.
Victor Mesa Jr. helped set the tone with a standout defensive sequence, while Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero supplied the kind of offense the Rays needed to stay alive. Nick Martinez and Foster Griffin handled the mound duties as Tampa Bay extended its lead late, taking advantage when Cleveland's defense slipped and turning a tight postseason game into one the Rays could finally control. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Turn To An Unusual Rallying Cry In Must-Win Game 4
Down 2-1 in the ALCS against the Guardians, the Rays are looking for any edge they can find as they head into a must-win Game 4, and Richie Palacios has turned to an unlikely source for motivation. He framed Tampa Bays spot against Cleveland through the lens of an NBA playoff team that faced a similar hole, using that comeback as a reminder that a series can swing fast when a club finds the right urgency at the right time.
Palacios went a step further by mapping some of the Rays own personalities onto the kind of roles that tend to drive those postseason runs, suggesting there are players in the clubhouse who fit the tough, relentless mold those teams lean on. It is the sort of clubhouse mindset that can sound like a rallying cry or a stretch depending on how the game goes, but for the Rays, the bigger point is simple enough: they need Game 4 to feel like the start of something, not the end. [Read more 🡒]