The Toronto Blue Jays are in the middle of a heated playoff race.

Facing off against the Texas Rangers in a three-game set in Toronto starting tonight, the stakes couldn't be much higher for either side.

Texas is just half a game back of Seattle for the final American League Wild Card spot, and a game-and-a-half back of Toronto.

With only 19 games remaining in Toronto's season — and 20 in Texas' — it's safe to say that the winner of this series could be the difference-maker between who makes the postseason and who doesn't.

But if you merely looked at the number of people in the crowd for Monday night's contest against the Rangers, it'd be hard to find any evidence this set of games could be a make-or-break point for Toronto's season.

Looking at Ticketmaster a few hours before tonight's 7:07 p.m. first pitch, there are thousands upon thousands of seats available throughout the Rogers Centre.

As per Jays fan James G, there's a whole lot of blue — aka, available seats — for tonight's contest, which features Toronto's Chris Bassitt taking the mound against the Rangers' Dane Dunning.

Gonna be a lot of disappointment and chatter about the crowd tonight and the whole series.

It raises the question to me if the rise in attendance was about the dome being the place to be for now back to school young adults and it not being about the baseball.pic.twitter.com/lhYMiZH2Ms

— James G (@james_in_to)September 11, 2023

With tickets priced atjust $23 for some upper bowl seats— or $20 for the general admission outfield district — it's a hard argument to say that Toronto's prices are driving fans away, either.

It's not like poor attendance has been a hallmark of the Jays' year — Toronto has averaged 37,492 fans this season, good for the eighth-highest mark in the major leagues and second in the American League East, behind only the New York Yankees, who carry the second-best attendance in baseball.

On the season, Toronto's attendance is 5,181 from last year's totals per night, likely influenced by the new-look renovations made to the Rogers Centre over the offseason.

In the entire MLB, attendance has been up across the board, with 26 of the 30 major league franchises seeing an increase from their 2022 averages.

But as alluded to above, perhaps it's a confluence of factors — the summer buzz coming to an end, families focusing on their back-to-school duties, and maybe even the typical "let's stay in on a Monday night" thought process that's holding the average fan from heading down to the ballpark for tonight's game.

And until enough fans make the call to head down to Rogers Centre to check out the Jays this month, it'll be a topic of discussion about why exactly a team in the midst of a playoff race isn't anywhere close to selling out.