White Sox vs. Orioles: Score and Twitter Reaction for Closed-to-the-Public Game

If a baseball game took place with no fans allowed into the park, did it really happen?

In the case of Wednesday's matchup between the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards, won by the home team, 8-2, the answer is yes.      

After postponing the first two games of this series, Major League Baseball made the decision on Tuesday that Wednesday's White Sox-Orioles game would be closed to the public due to riots and protests in Baltimore, according to Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com. 

Despite the absence of fans, with scouts and media in Camden Yards, the stands weren't entirely empty. Here is an overhead view of the stadium posted on the Orioles' official Twitter account:

Here's an Associated Press shot from the outfield looking in at home plate and at the press box (via Sports Photos):

For television audiences, it was a surreal experience. Being able to hear the sound of the bat off the ball and players calling off teammates was so unusual. 

The first big moment of the game came in the bottom of the first, when Chris Davis hit a long three-run homer off Jeff Samardzija. Just listen to the crack of the bat and the reaction from the Orioles dugout at the moment of contact in this video from MLB.com:

Davis may have expected to do something like that, based on these pregame comments to ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick:

Even though fans weren't allowed into the stadium, that didn't stop some people from making the journey to Camden Yards and then celebrating Davis' bomb. Per MLB on Fox:

In case you were wondering how the Orioles counted today's game for their season attendance, Brendan Prunty of The New York Times tweeted out the official word from the public address announcer:

Under normal circumstances, even if the attendance in the stadium is less than what you can see, teams will reveal how many tickets they sold. Today was anything but a normal circumstance, which is why the official announced "paid attendance."

Just because this was a unique game didn't mean baseball was about to give up on its traditions, such as the seventh-inning stretch, as noted by CNN's Rachel Nichols:

As for the particulars, Manny Machado is heating up after a slow start, and on Wednesday he went 3-for-4 with a double and a home run, raising his season average to .254.

Ubaldo Jimenez went seven strong innings, allowing two runs (zero earned) on three hits with six strikeouts and one walk. The right-hander lowered his season ERA to 1.59. It's a small sample size of 22.2 innings, but if he can be the pitcher Baltimore expects him to be, he'll give the rotation a huge boost. 

Even with the odd feeling around the game, it was a good day for the Orioles as they tried to keep in perspective all the more important things going on around the city. 

Major League Baseball did the best it could to keep the White Sox and Orioles from having to make up an entire three-game series later in the year—the two teams will play a doubleheader on May 28—with the end result being Wednesday's odd spectacle.