Confusion spread quickly throughout Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

No music played over the speakers heading into the sixth inning as ushers rushed around frantically. They were instructing fans to leave their seats and head to safety as a storm moved into the area, but the players continued to warm up as though nothing was happening.

Finally, as pitcher Dean Kremer was about to begin the sixth, the announcement came: With threats of lighting strikes around the stadium, fans needed to clear the seating bowls. Some remained until security came to escort them out.

Yet play continued, despite visible lighting strikes continuing for the rest of the game. The Orioles have control only over the stadium, not the game, so they decided to move fans for their safety. But the umpires and MLB had to make the call to go into a delay, and they decided to play on.

So for two innings the open seats at Camden Yards were empty, the 25,000 fans in attendance squished into either the concourse to watch on the small televisions scattered around the concession stands or, for the lucky ones, into the limited covered seats.

When a foul ball landed in left field, three fans sprinted through the vacant rows to snatch it, with security carefully monitoring. During the seventh-inning stretch, the soundtrack of “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” by John Denver played through the stadium, but there was no one dancing on the dugout.

In the bottom of the seventh, as Alex Jackson doubled and Jackson Holliday hit a single to bring him in to tie the game, only a faint cheer could be heard from the fans who still had a view of the game. It was reminiscent of the rebuild years, when the stadium was bare by choice, or the COVID-19 pandemic, when restrictions were in place to prevent the spread of the disease.

By the next inning, the storm had cleared and fans were allowed to trickle back in, but it was evident that some decided they had had enough. That tie game quickly evaporated too, Ezequiel Tovar hitting a solo home run to put the Rockies back in front. If fans didn’t leave because of the lighting, they used this as an opportunity to head to the exits.

The Rockies won 6-5.

It was, for a few innings there, looking like a solid day for the Orioles. Friday afternoon, Baltimore traded Gregory Soto to the New York Mets for two minor league pitchers, the team finally, if not by words then by actions, admitting it was time to sell and that this season was a washout.

Then, in the first two innings, the Orioles hit four solo home runs, with Coby Mayo, Jordan Westburg, Tyler O’Neill and Alex Jackson all getting one. For Mayo, it was his first off a major league pitcher; his only other home run came against a position player.

It wouldn’t last. Against Kremer, the Rockies, the worst team in MLB, crept back in. By the top of the fifth, Colorado had scored five runs, erasing the Orioles’ hot start.

With Soto gone and closer Félix Bautista on the injured list, Corbin Martin took the ninth. He succeeded in a 1-2-3 inning, but the Orioles’ offense did not.

The score in this one probably didn’t matter. It will be remembered for the teams who played two innings in an empty stadium.

This article will be updated.