MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers got their first answers to one of the big questions hanging over this strange 2020 season: What is it like to play a game in an empty Major League stadium?

It was just a five-inning scrimmage on Wednesday afternoon at Miller Park, and barely that. Manager Craig Counsell cut at least one plate appearance short and extended another in the interest of pitch counts. Some innings began with runners on base to simulate a situation for a baserunner or the infielders. But even with those amendments, it represented the Brewers’ first game of any kind in nearly four months, since the coronavirus pandemic forced MLB to suspend Spring Training. Players engaged in their first competitive at-bats with three or four empty decks of seats staring down at them.

The only fans in Miller Park these days are of the industrial sort, helping to circulate air amid the hottest stretch of Wisconsin’s summer so far.

“We don’t know what to expect in any of these games, honestly,” Counsell said. “It’s hard to say what we really expect, what it means, what it’s going to feel like. I think we’re going to have to experience that afterwards. I’m not going in with any expectations of how it’s going to feel.”

Some teams, including the Cubs, who are scheduled to host the Brewers on July 24 at Wrigley Field in the opener of a 60-game regular season, are already experimenting with pumped-in crowd noise. The Brewers don’t anticipate doing so in their scrimmages over the next couple of days, but it’s something club officials will discuss, Counsell said.

Brewers president of baseball operations Rick Schlesinger has said that the team is open to hosting a limited number of fans later this season. But first, the City of Milwaukee would have to relax restrictions on large gatherings that were implemented to impede the spread of the virus. And, Major League Baseball would have to approve.

So, teams are all pondering how empty ballparks will impact play on the field. Games in Asia have provided some clues, but until MLB players experience it, it’s something of a mystery.

“It’s going to be different, for sure,” Christian Yelich said. “We obviously enjoy playing in Miller Park in front of the home crowd. As a team, we feed off that. Even on the road, you feed off it when you’re getting booed and heckled and everybody in the stadium wants you to fail. As a player, it gets you up for the game. You use it to get through the season.

“To not have that is going to be different, and I think once we are back to the point when we do have a packed house at Miller Park again -- whenever that may be -- you’re going to appreciate it that much more. That’s something I’m looking forward to.”

What does Yelich expect in the meantime?

“I think the sounds of the game are going to be amplified,” he said. “The popping of the catcher’s mitt or the crack of the bat, you’re going to be able to hear a little bit more of that during these games. But for a player, it’s definitely going to be unique.”

Those sounds filled Miller Park on Wednesday, though cheering was not entirely absent thanks to third-base coach Ed Sedar, who pounded on a bench and clapped his hands in the bang-bang-clap, bang-bang-clap cadence familiar to sports fans. The first pops of the mitt were provided by starting pitchers Zack Brown and Shelby Miller, who each worked multiple innings in a resumption of their comeback attempts from disappointing 2019 seasons. Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, Ryan Braun and Keston Hiura were among the familiar faces who got at-bats; Cain rapped a single, ran to first base and fluttered his fingers in the air toward the stands like he always does when asking fans to “show me some love.” Only, the stands were empty.

The biggest hit of the day belonged to new Brewers first baseman Justin Smoak, who hit a two-run home run off Miller that barely eluded a leaping Keon Broxton at the wall in center field. Smoak circled the bases and almost slapped hands with the runner who scored ahead of him, Mark Mathias, who extended a leg instead.

“It’s going to be one of the most difficult things about this season -- playing with no fans in the stands,” said utility man Brock Holt, who signed a one-year deal with Milwaukee after spending the last seven seasons in Boston. “I've been fortunate to play in some pretty close rivalries, some pretty intense games -- playoff games, World Series games. I try to imagine what it would be like to be in that situation with no fans in the stands, and it's not going to feel the same. Playing in the World Series with no fans in the stands? How would that feel?”

There are other questions, like what happens the first time someone hits a walk-off home run? What happens the first time a disagreement ensues from a hard slide into second base? What happens the first time a manager feels compelled to charge toward an umpire to air a grievance?

Brewers bench coach Pat Murphy chuckled. He had been so busy helping Counsell plan practices that he hadn’t thought about the walk-off scenario. He believes certain players feed off fans more than others -- Cain and Josh Hader came to Murphy’s mind -- and could be particularly impacted.

“I don’t know [what to expect], but I’m excited about it,” Murphy said last week. “It’s going to be history. We’re part of history. We’ll see how it brings out certain things in people. People say, ‘Well, we don’t have fans to provide energy,’ and that’s true. They bring so much energy, and players feed off that energy. Now they have to reach down and get it from some other spot. We’re going to find out some things, good and bad. It’s hard for the front-office people to evaluate. Really hard, I think.”

All of the traditional scenes of the game will look different in a season of social distancing. On Wednesday, Holt and Mathias were among the players who wore facial coverings when they weren’t at-bat or in the field, and all coaches and staff wore masks. Between innings, an attendant sprayed items from the on-deck circle, including the resin and weighted “donut,” with disinfectant. No fans were there to see those small changes.

“I’ve believed for a long time that no fans in the stands is the biggest part of this season,” Counsell said. “I think it’s going to be the most jarring thing that happens.

“I don’t think we know. It’s a test of focus, without question, of concentration. And it is one of the major hurdles that guys are going to have to face this year.”