The Yankees are now 5-8 after Friday night’s loss to the Rays, and frustration has boiled over…among the fans.
During the eighth inning of Friday’s game, with Clint Frazier at bat and the Yankees trailing 8-2, fans at Yankee Stadium began throwing baseballs and other objects onto the field. The delay lasted just a few minutes and the Rays did not fully come off the field, but public address announcer Paul Olden did come over the PA to exhort fans to stop throwing objects.
And, as the YES broadcast noted, “the fans are frustrated with the way the team is playing right now, but that is not the way to show it.”
“That was the first time I think I’ve experienced that,” Frazier said after the game. “You never want it to come to that, and hopefully, moving forward, we play well enough to where that does not happen again.”
“I was hoping it would stop immediately, and none of their players got hit,” Giancarlo Stanton added. “You never want it to get to that point, and we didn’t want it to get to a point where they had to stop or call the game.”
The Yankees’ loss left them in sole possession of the worst record in the American League for the first time since April 1998 – a year they went on to win 114 regular-season games and their first of three straight World Series – and according to the players, even the even-keeled manager let frustration spill over after the game.
“Boonie is one of the most positive guys behind the scenes for us; he’s so chill that when he does address us that way, everyone’s ears perk up,” Frazier added. “Everyone took the thought that we have to come to the ballpark tomorrow ready to go, because the team that we’re playing is going to be ready to go. Everyone wants to figure out why we’re struggling, but we as a team and as players have set the expectations so high, people get upset when we don’t reach them, and we have to find a way to go out there and figure it out.
That’s the message I took from it, and maybe it was needed.”
“We can’t be rolling out there taking hits like that; that’s not our game, or how we should come out and play,” Stanton added. “We just have to play better. He was obviously very upset, and rightfully so.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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