A collection of recorded voices cheered at Camden Yards on Thursday night as Wade LeBlanc struck out opponent-for-a-night Renato Núñez. Only a few pitchers later, similar audio carried through the empty ballpark, this time after Chris Davis homered off LeBlanc. Quickly, the fake fans went from cheering for to cheering against the left-hander in home whites.
Thursday night offered a glimpse of at least the early portion of Major League Baseball’s 2020 season, with the coronavirus pandemic keeping fans from attending games. Trying to simulate a more game-like environment, the Orioles spent their intrasquad matchup feeding the sounds of fans’ cheers into the ballpark, using the Camden Yards scoreboard with public address announcer Ryan Wagner introducing each batter as their respective walk-up songs played.