Austin Riley delivered the first clutch moment of Major League Baseball's playoffs on Tuesday, hitting a go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth inning that pushed the Atlanta Braves over the Philadelphia Phillies for a 5-3 win.
It was an electric scene for fans at Truist Park — at least for those who decided to show up.
There has been a noticeable number of empty seats in Atlanta and Houston for day games during this week's Wild Card Series, with the Braves drawing 30,127 fans for Game 1 on Tuesday that started at 2 p.m. local time, well below the 41,108 capacity. The Astros announced that 34,011 fans attended Tuesday's 4 p.m. Game 1 at Daikin Park, also well below its 41,168-seat limit.
It's not the first time this has happened.
Since MLB permanently expanded the playoffs to a 12-team bracket in 2022, just six of 26 afternoon Wild Card Series games through Tuesday have reached or exceeded stadium capacity. Seven games failed to reach even 85% capacity. The Braves-Phillies game on Tuesday was 73.2% full, which is the lowest since the postseason expanded, according to research from Sportradar.
Game 2 of the Braves-Phillies series had an announced crowd of 37,150 on Wednesday.
The main issue for day games is obvious: It's hard for fans to attend day games during the week — particularly in late September and October — because people have to work and children are back in school. It doesn't help that those game times are announced with only a few days' notice.
Still, it's a less-than-ideal atmosphere for some of the most important contests of the year.
Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm shrugged off the smaller crowds before Wednesday's game, saying his team just wants to win games and advance.
“I don’t think anybody on our team is really focused on how many people are showing up here," Bohm said. "It’s just kind of -- I think, like you said, it’s a 2 o’clock game in the middle of the week, so I think that might have something to do with it.
“That doesn’t take away from what’s going on on the field and kind of the stakes of all that in our minds.”
All three ALWCS games in Cleveland last year between the Guardians and Detroit Tigers started at 1:08 p.m., and none drew more than 30,000 fans. The Tampa Bay Rays had just 19,704 for an ALWCS opener against Texas in 2023 that started at 3:08 p.m., the lowest attendance for a non-COVID MLB postseason game since the 1919 World Series.
MLB declined to comment on the attendance numbers, but the league spreads its wild-card games throughout the day on purpose so they have their own television window and capture the largest viewing audience possible. NBC is paying the league roughly $200 million per year to host “Sunday Night Baseball” and the Wild Card Series during a three-year deal agreed to last November.
The Astros fans who did attend Tuesday's game were in a bit of a foul mood, peppering the team with boos as they fell behind 5-0 by the fifth inning on the way to a 6-3 loss. Astros manager Joe Espada said he understood the fans' frustration but hoped for a better atmosphere on Wednesday.
“I do want our fans to know that we love them and we need them,” Espada said. “They’re part of what we are trying to accomplish here. They’re part of our family.”
AP Sports Writers Charles Odum in Atlanta and Kristie Rieken in Houston contributed to this story.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
Atlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale walks to the dugout before Game 1 of baseball's National League Wild Card Series against the Philadelphia Phillies Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Fans sit among empty seats during the second inning in Game 1 of baseball's American League Wild Card Series between the Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s internal watchdog said Wednesday that the central bank has broadly mismanaged an expansive building renovation project but did not find any criminal violations, as alleged by Trump administration prosecutors.
A variety of missteps by the Fed's Board of Governors and staff inflated the cost of the $2.4 billion renovation, the Fed’s inspector general said. The board did not secure a comprehensive cost estimate at the beginning of the project, nor did it nail down a maximum overall cost, a step that could have forced the building contractor to absorb the impact of inflation, the IG said in a 120-page report. Prices spiked after construction began in 2022.
“Our review found that the Board has not effectively managed and executed its ... contract and repeatedly deviated from its cost-management provisions,” the report said.
The building project became a high-profile flashpoint in the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure the Fed into cutting its key interest rate. President Donald Trump even visited the construction site last July, when then-Chairman Jerome Powell corrected Trump’s estimate of the project’s expected costs as the two stood in hard hats before TV cameras.
Criticism of the project also mounted in Congress, leading Powell to request in July 2025 that the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, investigate the renovation.
The building project then became the focus of a criminal investigation by Trump’s Justice Department, specifically into whether Powell had committed perjury during brief testimony about the renovation before a Senate committee. That investigation was dropped in April after a judge quashed subpoenas issued by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Pirro said then she would await the outcome of the inspector general’s investigation before deciding whether to take any further action.
“At no point during our evaluation did we find reasonable grounds to believe that a violation of federal criminal law had occurred requiring a referral to the U.S. Attorney General,” the IG’s report said.
Tim Lauer, a spokesperson for Pirro's office, said the report is under review.
Powell's term as chair ended in May, but he took the highly unusual step of remaining on the board as one of seven governors. His term as a governor lasts until January 2028. Powell said earlier this year he would remain on the board at least until he is convinced that Pirro's investigation is done. By keeping his seat, Powell has also prevented the Trump administration from filling another spot on the board.
Trump on Wednesday afternoon seized on the report to renew his call for Powell to resign from the Fed.
“He can’t manage a Building, and he certainly shouldn’t be allowed to manage his High Interest Rate Policy,” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social. “And no, I do not want this Building named after President Donald J. Trump, ME!”
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee and a frequent critic of Powell's, said the report “confirmed that Trump lapdogs U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and Attorney General Todd Blanche have no basis to restart the President’s witch hunt against former Fed Chair Jerome Powell.”
Current Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, who took office last May, welcomed the IG’s findings in a letter and said the General Services Administration, a federal agency that oversees most government buildings, would take on a consulting role with the Fed to help oversee the project.
He also said the Fed would engage an independent auditor to evaluate the building project and all its costs. The Fed, with the GSA, will review all the project's contracts and “pursue appropriate remedies,” including seeking reimbursement for any work paid for but not performed, the letter said.
The report said that the construction costs to renovate two Fed buildings more than doubled from an original estimate of $921 million in February 2020 to $2.018 billion by December 2024. Construction is expected to last until December 2027, long past its originally slated completion date of mid-2024.
Some aspects of the project that were criticized by the Trump administration and Republican members of Congress for being luxurious — water fountains, private elevators and marble facades — were not significant drivers of the excessive costs of the project, the report said.
Instead, the IG said that a design change by the Fed in 2023 from a mostly open workspace to one with mostly closed office space caused a significant delay in the project's design. It also delayed the Fed from seeking a maximum cost ceiling for the project at that time.
The Fed has long blamed a range of factors for the cost overruns, including a spike in inflation that occurred as the economy emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, unexpected expenses such as asbestos remediation, and additional demands from review agencies. For example, Trump appointees to a planning commission from his first term pushed the Fed to add more marble to the exterior of the renovated buildings, in keeping with Trump's preference for classical architecture.
The report said those factors all played a role, but added that they “do not account for the effect of key project management and contract execution decisions” that effectively transformed the contract to "a cost-plus reimbursement contract with a pay-as-you-go approach.”
“Inflation does not change the Fed’s responsibility to manage its resources prudently and be accountable to Congress,” Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a South Carolina Republican, said.
FILE- Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, from second left, President Donald Trump and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., visit the Federal Reserve, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE- President Donald Trump, left, and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, second right, visit the Federal Reserve, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE- Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell looks over a document of cost figures as President Donald Trump points during a visit to the Federal Reserve, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE- FILE - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, right, and President Donald Trump look over a document of cost figures during a visit to the Federal Reserve, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
