Tuesday night was Oakland’s protest to a potential move to Las Vegas. On an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday night, the A’s posted their highest attendance of the season with a crowd of 27,759 for a team averaging 8,555 a game.
It was raucous from the pregame tailgate to the finish, with fans engineering a “reverse boycott” as the team plots a move to Las Vegas.
The peak of that fanfare came at the end of the game, when the A’s came back from a 1-0 deficit to win 2-1 against the MLB-best Tampa Bay Rays. Oakland has now won seven-straight games, but is still tied for the worst record in the league at 19-50.
During a review of a play when Randy Arozarena was caught stealing, a fan ran on the field, getting caught on a leap just shy of the fence.
When the game concluded, fans continued to make their feelings toward owner John Fisher clear.
In addition to the all-encompassing “Sell The Team” chants and some expletive-laden ones directed at Fisher, fans launched trash on the field in prolific fashion. Beer cans, water bottles, oversized paper airplanes, toilet paper rolls and some of the many protest signs came flying down onto the field.
Things were cleaned up within a half hour of the game’s conclusion, but the trash-launching continued for quite a while, as the exodus from the stadium took a while longer than it might normally. Chants could be heard after the game in the parking lot.