The Royals and Rays played a doubleheader on Wednesday, but judging by the amount of people who attended you wouldn't have guessed games were being played at Kauffman Stadium. Kansas City made up for Tuesday's postponed game by letting fans buy one ticket for access to the entire doubleheader. Now, it's one thing to love baseball, but two games in one day is a very long day at the ballpark. Couple that with the doubleheader between two small-market clubs coming in the middle of the week and you might have an attendance issue. What resulted was a legitimately depressing sight. The Royals are ranked 28th in attendance and the Rays are just below them at 29th, so if Rays fans aren't showing up in Tampa Bay they definitely aren't going to be showing up in Kansas City. By now we know about the attendance issues MLB is facing. There hasn't seen an increase in attendance since 2012, and last season it dipped below 70 million for the first time since 1997. A big part of this may be that it's easier to just watch from home. There are more streaming options than ever. While every team isn't struggling with getting fans in the seats as badly as the Royals and Marlins, it's an ominous sign. We won't know the real number of fans who attended this game because teams measure it by ticket sales rather than actual seats filled, but that is an insanely empty ballpark by any metric.<doc-sep>Orlin Wagner/Associated Press Nobody told the residents of Kansas City that the Royals had a baseball game on Wednesday afternoon. Jeff Passan of ESPN shared an image of a near-empty Kauffman Stadium for the first leg of a doubleheader with the Tampa Bay Rays: If Adalberto Mondesi hit a two-run homer during the game (he did) but nobody was there to hear the crack of the bat, did it even make a sound? Philosophical queries aside, the Royals won the first game of the doubleheader 3-2, behind a gem from starting pitcher Jakob Junis, who gave up just two runs on six hits in 6.1 innings of work. He gave up about as many hits as there were fans in the crowd.<doc-sep>MLB has had a well-publicized attendance problem in recent years, and it hasn’t stopped through the first month of the 2019 season. One picture from today’s Kansas City Royals game says over 1,000 words. The Royals entered today with a 9-20 record, the second-worst in baseball. Their home “crowd” certainly is befitting a team that has won less than one-third of its games. Check out this picture from ESPN’s Jeff Passan. I know that it's a Wednesday afternoon during the school year in a city that doesn't draw well against a team that doesn't attract a road crowd. But I've never seen so few people at a major league game as the one just starting now between Kansas City and Tampa Bay. pic.twitter.com/z3QUdfdWiT — Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 1, 2019 Remember, this Royals franchise went to back-to-back World Series in 2014 and 2015 and won it all in 2015. They aren’t THAT far removed from being on top of the baseball world. However, their roster has been stripped bare as they are in the middle of yet another rebuilding effort. Kansas City is a small market team with a small market mindset when it comes to spending money. That makes for really, really small crowds when you’re not winning many games. It’s only May too. Things could even get worse as the season rolls along.<doc-sep>KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - MAY 01: Starting pitcher Blake Snell #4 of the Tampa Bay Rays leaves the game in the fourth inning against the Kansas City Royals in game two of a doubleheader at Kauffman Stadium on May 01, 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) The Kansas City Royals may be struggling, but don’t tell that to Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell. Even before his breakout 2018 campaign, Blake Snell was a solid pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays. Although he struggled with his command at times, Snell showed the signs that he could emerge as an ace even before last season, when he finally tapped into that potential to become one of the top pitchers in the American League. At least, Snell is one of the top pitchers in the American League if he is not facing the Kansas City Royals. Although this team is far from their heyday of 2014-15, they have managed to make Snell’s life miserable throughout his career. Blake Snell has a 7.27 career ERA against the Royals in four starts, his highest ERA against any team he has faced more than once. He has a 2.88 ERA against all other teams. — Royals Review (@royalsreview) May 1, 2019 The only other team that has battered Snell to that level? The Pittsburgh Pirates, who have faced him exactly once in his career. In that outing, Snell allowed six runs on four hits and five walks over five innings. Even then, that performance pales to how the Royals have treated Snell during his career. Heading into Wednesday’s contest, Kansas City had a .333/.377/.544 batting line in 61 plate appearances. The Royals .921 OPS heading into the second game of their doubleheader was the highest against Snell thus far in his career. Wednesday certainly did not help those numbers. In just three innings, Snell allowed seven runs on six hits, including two doubles and a homer, and three walks. Kelvin Gutierrez belted that home run, the first of his career. Yet, considering how the Royals have battered him in the past, Wednesday was just another day at the park. Every player has that one player or team that is their kryptonite. Bob Uecker infamously hammered Sandy Koufax when he faced the Hall of Fame lefty, really the only pitcher that Eucker could hit in his career. For Snell, the Kansas City Royals are that franchise, a team that is just somehow dialed in when he steps foot on the mound. Want your voice heard? Join the Call To The Pen team! Write for us! Blake Snell may be the defending AL Cy Young Award winner, but that does not matter to the Kansas City Royals. The Tampa Bay Rays lefty is simply no match for their offense.<doc-sep>
The Kansas City Royals have the second-worst record in baseball. They haven’t been competitive in two years. And despite having baseball’s best record, the Tampa Bay Rays aren’t a draw on the road either. But man, there are Little League games that draw better crowds than what we saw on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium. The Rays and Royals were making up Tuesday’s postponed game with a doubleheader. When you take the unscheduled matchup into account with a bad team, small-market opponent and school in session, you get perhaps the worst turnout we’ll see this MLB season. Like, even the Marlins’ crowds aren’t this bad. I know that it's a Wednesday afternoon during the school year in a city that doesn't draw well against a team that doesn't attract a road crowd. But I've never seen so few people at a major league game as the one just starting now between Kansas City and Tampa Bay. pic.twitter.com/z3QUdfdWiT — Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 1, 2019 You can literally count every fan in this photo: Three. There are three fans. It really filled in behind home plate … with 13 fans! While the turnout was embarrassing, the Royals haven’t exactly made their games accessible to fans during this rebuild. According to gobankingrates.com, the average cost to attend a Royals game with two hot dogs, two beers and parking ranks as baseball’s seventh-most expensive. When you charge a lot of money to watch a bad team, you get MLB’s 28th-ranked attendance. It’s that simple.