The seating bowl was like a floodplain, its patches of blue expanding steadily throughout the game until the playing surface looked like an island surrounded on all sides by a three-tiered wave.
The Phillies were three games out of first place, with a chance to take three of four from the preseason favorites, and their $20 million-a-year Cy Young veteran on the mound. Yet when the 12th inning arrived, you questioned not the motivations of the tens of thousands missing, but those of the smattering that remained.
The Phillies are in an interesting place right now. Outside of the clubhouse and dugout and executive suite, there is an overwhelming ambivalence regarding this team.