The San Francisco Giants' 9-0 pounding of the Texas Rangers earned the second-lowest television rating for a World Series Game 2, with more then one-quarter the audience disappearing from last year.
The Thursday night game got an 8.5 rating and was seen by only 14.13 million people, Nielsen Media Research said Friday.
That was down 26 percent from the 11.5 rating for the New York Yankees' 3-1 win over Philadelphia in Game 2 last year. The only lower-rated Game 2 was in 2008, when Tampa Bay's 4-2 victory over the Phillies got an 8.1 rating.
The 2008 Series set a record for the worst rating, with an 8.4 over five games. The rating rebounded to 11.6 last year, with larger markets and the first Series since 2003 extending past five games.
Despite the absence of New York and Los Angeles, there are big television markets involved in this year's Series. Dallas/Fort Worth is the fifth-largest in the United States, and San Francisco is No. 6, according to Nielsen.
More than 3 million viewers on the East Coast, including people in New York City and Philadelphia, cannot watch the World Series because of a contract dispute between Fox and cable company Cablevision.
Through two games, this year's Series is averaging an 8.7 rating and 14.6 million. The rating is down 25 percent from the 11.6 average after the second game last year.
