The Golden Knights’ gold-and-grey-on-black helmets are everywhere.

They’re on T-shirts and hats worn by mall patrons Jacob McQuaide Jersey , on jerseys of moviegoers, on stuffed animals, on mugs and on bumper stickers deep in suburbia. Bars far from the city’s tourist-driven areas show the games on TV, and watch parties have become a regular activity.

The arena rocks when the expansion team that has taken the league by storm appears on its home ice. A city that for years longed for a major sports franchise has truly embraced the Knights.

”It’s so much different live than it is on TV. It’s a whole different experience,” said David Santangelo, a Las Vegas resident who is a season ticket holder and longtime hockey fan. ”People fall in love with it. So many people I talk to at work are saying that they didn’t know it was so exciting. People are really starting to learn about it now.”

Santangelo, who was wearing a Knights jersey, was among hundreds who attended a party Monday in downtown Las Vegas to watch Game 3 of the Knights’ second-round playoff series against the San Jose Sharks. The Golden Knights have a 3-2 series lead after a 5-3 victory over San Jose on Friday night.

For years, questions were raised over whether the tourist-driven city with a long history of hosting big events could support a big league team night after night. Gambling and a relatively small market size steered major franchises elsewhere. Before the Knights dropped the puck, there were naysayers even though initial ticket demand was high.

Average game attendance at T-Mobile Arena is now 18,042. Tourists and comped high-rollers have surely caught games. So have tennis greats Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, rapper Lil Jon, poker pro Daniel Negreanu and slugger Bryce Harper before baseball season started. But defying some of those early predictions Andre Reed Jersey , it’s been regular residents and their children who have filled the stands game after game.

The crowds bode well for the NFL’s Raiders, who are due to move to Sin City in 2020.

The Knights – who were 200-1 at many sports books to win the Stanley Cup before the season began – proudly declare themselves Vegas Born. Their success on the ice has certainly influenced attendance, but it may also have to do with the city’s desperate need for fellowship around the time the season opened.

The Knights’ home opener in October came only a few days after the city suffered the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The team retired jersey No. 58 during its final home game of the regular season to honor the victims. A banner with 58 stars was hoisted into the rafters. The victims’ names were also projected on the ice.

”I think because all the players are from different places and Las Vegas is a melting pot of people from different places, it’s just really brought community together to have our own team,” said fan Angel Ashby. ”This is a Vegas-born team. It isn’t from somewhere else.”

Ashby had rooted for the Colorado Avalanche, but got rid of the jersey when the Knights arrived. She and her friends rotate hosting watch parties.

The energy has existed at the arena from the beginning, but has progressively gotten louder with the success that followed. For the playoffs, the team has expanded the pregame festivities to include a huge knight’s helmet that is lowered from the rafters in front of the Vegas bench. The Golden Knights enter the ice through the front of the helmet.

Some players toss pucks to their young fans before the game and some children in attendance will get sticks from select players after every game. And the popularity has spilled over from T-Mobile Arena to City National Arena, the team’s practice facility. There, the Vegas Golden Knights Skating Academy has grown from less than 100 kids to nearly 1,000 seven months after its inception.

Todd Pollock, vice president of ticketing and suites, said he did not expect the level of support the team has experienced in its debut season and wondered what took so long for Las Vegas to get a major franchise. The team had planned a three-day campaign for season-ticket packages for next season Giovani Bernard Jersey , but the organization canceled after the first day due to an overwhelming response.

”What we’re seeing collectively this year absolutely, positively, I don’t think I could have scripted it any better than the way it’s currently playing out,” said Pollock, who worked in the same capacity with the Los Angeles Kings and the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.

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It was the closest thing to a perfect scenario for the Red Sox: Eduardo Rodriguez on the mound against the lowly Baltimore Orioles.

Home runs by Rafael Devers and Andrew Benintendi helped Rodriguez win his fifth straight start, and Boston extended Baltimore’s losing streak to six games with a 6-4 victory Tuesday night.

Rodriguez (8-1) gave up two runs and eight hits over 5 2/3 innings to increase a career-best run of success that began on May 20 against the Orioles. Rodriguez is 3-0 this season against Baltimore, the team that gave the left-hander his first professional contract in 2010 and traded him to Boston in 2014.

”Eduardo was good. The next step for him is to go deeper into the game and keep that pitch count down,” manager Alex Cora said.

It took Rodriguez 109 pitches to get 17 outs, but he left with a 6-2 lead.

”I’m throwing the ball good and I want to keep on doing it,” Rodriguez said. ”The more wins you get, the closer you get to the playoffs.”

No team in the big leagues has more wins than Boston (46). The Red Sox are 12-1 in Rodriguez’s starts, including 5-0 on the road, and 8-1 overall against Baltimore.

Devers hit a two-run drive in the second inning and Benintendi connected in the third for a 3-1 lead. A bases-loaded walk and a run-scoring balk made it 5-2 in the fourth Joseph Noteboom Jersey , and Boston coasted from there.

Joey Rickard homered for the Orioles, who own the worst record in the big leagues (19-47) and have endured six losing streaks of at least five games.

Before Mark Trumbo doubled in two runs in the ninth, Baltimore was 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position. And despite that hit, the Orioles are 3 for 48 in that situation during their current skid.

Rookie pitcher David Hess (2-3) stumbled in his sixth big league start, allowing five runs, five hits and a career-high four walks in 3 1/3 innings.

”At the end of the day, if I execute some pitches a little bit better I think the results are different,” Hess said. ”But that’s a good lineup. You’ve got to be at your best going out there and tonight I wasn’t.”

Baltimore reliever Zach Britton made his season debut, six months after undergoing surgery for a ruptured right Achilles tendon. The lefty pitched a scoreless seventh inning.

”It almost felt like my debut, like an out-of-body experience,” Britton said. ”It was weird.”

TAKE A SEAT

Red Sox: OF Mookie Betts was held out of the starting lineup, one day after ending a 14-game stay on the disabled list with an abdominal strain. Cora said he didn’t want to push Betts so soon after his return, but intends to start him in Wednesday’s series finale.

Orioles: Struggling 1B Chris Davis (.150 batting average Keelan Cole Jersey , 86 Ks) was benched and likely will also be held out of the starting lineup Wednesday, manager Buck Showalter said.

WELCOME, KID

The Orioles agreed to terms with first-round pick Grayson Rodriguez, a right-hander from Central Heights High School in Texas. Selected 11th overall, Rodriguez was introduced to the crowd in the fourth inning.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Red Sox: Relief pitcher Carson Smith, who hurt his shoulder last month when he threw his glove in the dugout after giving up a home run to Oakland’s Khris Davis, will have surgery Wednesday and could be lost for the season, Cora said. … There is no timetable for the return of 2B Dustin Pedroia (knee), a four-time All-Star who was placed on the disabled list June 2. The team will wait until the inflammation subsides before taking the next step.

Orioles: RHP Andrew Cashner was placed on the DL with back spasms. He’s expected to miss only one start. … SS Manny Machado returned to the lineup after sitting out with an illness Monday.

UP NEXT

Red Sox: Chris Sale (5-4, 2.83 ERA) tries to end a run of three straight losing starts on Wednesday.

Orioles: Baltimore takes another stab at becoming the final major league team to win 20 games in 2018. Yefry Ramirez will be recalled from Triple-A Norfolk to replace Cashner as the starter.

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