The Baltimore Orioles (9-10) and Chicago White Sox (8-9) will finally be able to play a game this afternoon at 12:05 PM MT after the first two games were postponed until May 28 as part of a single-admission doubleheader. The first two games of the series were postponed due to safety concerns in Baltimore after riots broke out near Camden Yards following the funeral of Freddie Gray. Rioters looted stores and threw rocks and bricks at police about three miles from the stadium Monday in the wake of the death of Gray. He died April 19 after suffering a severe spinal injury while in police custody.
The interesting part of the game this afternoon is that the game will not be open to the public. The only ones allowed in the ballpark are the media and Major League Baseball scouts. It will definitely be a different atmosphere for the White Sox and Orioles when they take the field in an empty ballpark. The game was also moved up five hours to avoid conflicting with a citywide curfew that begins at 10 p.m. ET. This will be an interesting game to watch. Without a crowd you will be able to hear all the sounds of the game and will definitely have a different feel to it. Will the quiet of the stadium affect the players? Probably not, but it will be weird to see them playing in an empty Camden Yards.
The White Sox will send Jeff Samardzija (1-1, 3.33 ERA) and the Orioles will have Ubaldo Jimenez (1-1, 2.30) start. Both players had been scheduled to go Monday, but had to wait a couple of days to make their starts. Samardzija is in the process of appealing a five-game suspension handed down after last Thursday’s brawl with the Kansas City Royals. Chicago completed two wins over Kansas City on Sunday, the regularly scheduled 5-3 victory and a 3-2 win from Friday’s suspended game. The White Sox are 8-5 since dropping their first four. The Orioles have averaged 6.11 runs in their last nine games after getting by the Boston Red Sox on Sunday 18-7.
The Orioles have also had this weekend’s Friday-to-Sunday series against the Tampa Bay Rays shifted from Camden Yards to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, with Baltimore remaining the home team and batting last.
