It was a sad end to the baseball season for Florida’s teams. On the bright side, the Marlins and the Rays both made the playoffs, but they were both swept in games that had almost identical scores: 4-1 and 4-0 for Tuesday’s contests, and 7-1 in yesterday’s. By scoring that one run yesterday, the Rays were saved from the ignominy of breaking the Los Angeles Dodgers’ record of 34 straight scoreless innings in playoff games. This from a team that this season won its first 13 games. Their record gave them home field advantage, such as it was, as only 19,704 people showed up for the first game, the lowest attendance at an MLB playoff game in 104 years. Granted, it was an afternoon game, during the week, in perhaps the unloveliest stadium in the majors. The Marlins, on the other hand, played at night before a crowd of raucous Philly fans (is there any other kind?). Perhaps the sight of a packed stadium awash in red and deafening with decibels was so alien to them that it affected their play.
