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Freddie Gray protestors flood Camden Street, attempt to disrupt Orioles game

Mark Townsend
·Yahoo Sports Contributor
(Eduardo Encina)

On Saturday, protestors started gathering in the streets of Baltimore to express their anger over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man who suffered a spinal injury that allegedly occurred while he was being arrested by Baltimore police.

According to reports early in the day, the protests were mostly peaceful. However, as the day has gone along, the protests have become most destructive, with numerous reports of protestors throwing objects at police dressed in riot gear, and breaking out windows in police cars and buildings around Camden and Howard Street, which is right outside Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the home of the Baltimore Orioles.

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According to a few writers on scene, the protests turned chaotic as first pitch neared, which forced the Orioles to temporarily close off Gate H on Eutaw Street. Thousands of fans were caught up in the protests as well as they attempted to enter the ballpark. Some were even threatened, according to the Baltimore Sun's Eduardo Encina.

There was some brief talk on social media about whether or not the game should go on as scheduled on Saturday. It would appear the Orioles, Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball never seriously entertained that thought as the game began on time.

Here's a look at the chaotic scene, courtesy of Encina and others.

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it would appear the scene outside the park hadn't improved much by first pitch. Perhaps some fans just went home, too, rather than dealing with the gathering.

Of course, we figured things could get interesting again toward the end of the game. This announcement was actually made in the stadium in the ninth inning, advising fans to remain in the ballpark until further notice.

The Orioles went on to 5-4 in 10 innings on David Lough's walk-off home run. Less than minutes later, fans were given the all clear with instructions on how to leave the ballpark and direction for leaving the area.

Fortunately, it appears everyone was able to leave safely, but it'll be interesting to see how things are looking on Sunday before the series finale.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!