After trading away many key players from last year’s team, the Athletics have struggled to attract fans to their games all season. In April, Oakland set a record-low in home attendance at RingCentral Coliseum in back-to-back games, drawing 2,703 fans in the second of those two games.
On Wednesday, the Athletics claim that over 5,000 people were on hand to see them take on the Astros. However, a picture of the stadium half an hour before the game began made many question whether that was true.
What makes this picture more striking is the Astros pitcher was Justin Verlander, who entered the game with a 2.03 ERA in nine games. It might be the only time Verlander pitches in Oakland this year, depending on how Houston’s rotation lines up in future series.
Oakland entered Wednesday’s game 20-32, which is worst in the AL West and one of the five worst records in all of baseball. They are on pace for their first season with a record under .500 since 2017.
