CHICAGO -- Could rivalries run hotter in 2020 as an unintended consequence of the coronavirus pandemic?

Take Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field as an example. From the first pitch, according to Milwaukee starter Corbin Burnes, the Brewers and Cubs were trading barbs. In the third inning, after Burnes struck out Cubs catcher Willson Contreras and pounded his glove, tempers flared and players from both teams took a few steps onto the field to exchange words. The rest of the afternoon played out in a general state of agitation. By the end of the day, Brewers catcher Omar Narváez was hit by a pitch twice. Contreras and Javier Báez were each hit by a pitch. The Brewers won, 8-3.

No one on either side pointed to a specific infraction. Rather, managers and players chalked it up to a fact of playing baseball in empty stadiums in 2020: Everybody can hear everything.

“I don’t know if Major League Baseball saw it coming, but I think if you’re in the dugout in this environment, you're going to expect some of that,” Cubs skipper David Ross said. “That's going to spark some intensity. The umpires can hear it as well. Maybe they’re head's up and they’ve got a quick trigger, talking to dugouts and stuff like that.”

Said Brewers counterpart Craig Counsell: “We’re competing. We’re not going to be quiet when something happens that we don’t like, and neither are they. We normally don’t hear much of that stuff, to be honest. We’re going to hear more of it right now, and I think we all have to get used to it.”

Counsell praised the umpires -- CB Bucknor was behind the plate Saturday -- for helping to cool tempers and suggested that umps may play that role more regularly in 2020.

There is some underlying crowd noise pumped through stadium sound systems, and that could help. When the Brewers began experimenting with the sounds sent to teams by Major League Baseball during Summer Camp, they found that the murmur was rather loud, and adjusted the volume down. Teams will continue to experiment to find the right settings to both enhance the broadcasts and the experience for players on the field.

But even if more sound is pumped in, what used to be private conversations are going to travel.

"It's going to be tough throughout the season,” Brewers center fielder Lorenzo Cain said. “I'm sure there's a lot of competitive guys out there. You know, emotions are high. Everyone wants to do well. For us to actually be out there and hear each other say stuff to another guy that we might not like, it's gonna be tough.

“But we’ve got to find a way for both sides to tone it down. Because at the end of the day, we just want to go out there and play the game the right way, do the right things and hopefully something like that doesn't happen again. But if it does, I'll have the boys' back, regardless.”

The same goes for the Cubs.

“It's not a big deal to us. There's always ‘scrumbles’ throughout the year and I think there's going to be ‘scrumbles’ throughout this year, too,” Cubs left fielder Kyle Schwarber said. “I think the only thing is we're going to always have to be careful with the new rules here, not being able to really get it going into each other there. You can't really bench clear or anything like that, so you kind of need to keep the tempers down to the best of our abilities, and cheer on the boys.”

What does MLB’s manual say specifically about brawling? Cain wasn’t sure, but players from both sides understand that during a season in which players, coaches and staffs are doing everything possible to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, an on-field scrum is the worst possible activity.

“I think that everyone in the league knows what's at risk here,” Schwarber said. “And obviously, one, if that were to ever happen, that's like an automatic suspension. Then you're hurting your own team by being suspended and things like that. It's baseball. Anything can happen. We're a bunch of grown men out there. There could be a ‘scrumble’ here or there, but I think that all, ideally, that we have a good mindset on, this is a sprint and we're going to need each other throughout the whole year.”

Said Cain: “Hopefully it doesn't come to that. But like I said, emotions are high. Hopefully we can avoid that situation because we don't want to be in close contact. But if the situation were to arise, then we'll just have to see what happens.”