Photos: In wake of riots, Baltimore Orioles play to empty Camden Yards

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Baltimore Orioles right fielder Delmon Young fields a single by Chicago White Sox's Avisail Garcia in the second inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 29, 2015, in Baltimore. The game was played in an empty Oriole Park at Camden Yards amid unrest in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police.

BALTIMORE --?? With rubble and debris looming nearby, and tempers still smoldering in riot-torn Baltimore, the Orioles played a baseball game on Wednesday.

This wasn't for the fans, because there weren't any at Camden Yards.

The game was held behind closed doors, and the Orioles and Chicago White Sox played because it was the best time to fill out the schedule for both teams.

The timing worked for baseball, not so much for Baltimore. It was an unusual move by Major League Baseball, which usually errs on the side of caution in the wake of tragedy.

Baseball games were cancelled after riots ignited in Los Angeles and terrorists attacked New York and Washington. Baseball put off the World Series in 1989 after an earthquake hit San Francisco.

In Baltimore, after a drug store was set on fire about four miles from the ballpark and the National Guard was summoned to restore order, they played a game because this was the only planned visit by this season by the Chicago White Sox. The postponed games on Monday and Tuesday were to be made up as part of a doubleheader on May 28, but there was seemingly nowhere to go on the schedule with Wednesday's game.

So they moved up the starting time by five hours to 2:05 p.m. to beat the 10 o'clock curfew and had the teams go at it before 47,000 empty seats.

Read more: Orioles take the field before an empty stadium in riot-torn Baltimore