ST. PETERSBURG -- Kevin Kiermaier stood in the box awaiting a 3-2 pitch from Colin Poche and the crowd at Tropicana Field suddenly got louder. Kiermaier, who was part of the “home” team during Thursday’s intrasquad game, grounded out, causing the crowd noise to die down once again.

With teams rolling through the Trop this season, that situation resembled what the Rays would’ve seen this season under normal circumstances. But with fans not expected to be in attendance, at least for the foreseeable future, the Rays -- and other Major League clubs -- are looking for alternate solutions.

On Thursday, for the first time during camp, the Rays tested out fake crowd noise in an effort to try to make the games a little bit more “normal” for players.

“I liked it,” Kiermaier said. “It’s a lot better than just silence throughout a ballpark. That’s not what we’re accustomed to and I liked it. … Overall, we were very pleased with it and hopefully it continues, because we want to make this like a ballgame for a normal day at the ballpark, given our situation. I hope it plays out and they keep pumping in that crowd noise. It was fun.”

Along with the crowd noise, the Rays used a few other tactics to make the atmosphere a little bit more normal. Players were greeted with walk-up music, there was music between innings and there was no equipment or nets on the field.

For the pitchers in the bullpen, it gave them a much different feel than playing in a silent stadium, which is what the Rays have been doing since Summer Camp workouts started on July 3.

“I try to tune out noise when I’m on the mound, but sitting out in the bullpen, it definitely gives it more of a game atmosphere, for sure,” said Andrew Kittredge, who pitched in Thursday’s intrasquad game. “It kind of made it feel like we were getting ready to play meaningful games.”

There are still some things the Rays need to work through with the crowd noise, as expected.

The pitch-to-pitch murmur created a much better ambience than playing in an empty stadium, but the timing of the sudden roars when a positive play happened were still off.

“There are 'oohs' and 'ahhs' to a normal crowd, and then there are claps, people laugh sometimes,” Kiermaier said. “It’ll be interesting to see how they control that to implement certain sounds during certain points throughout the game. I’m curious to see how that will progress as time goes on because when guys would square a ball up for a double or homer, you can tell the sound was a little bit delayed, and rightfully so. It can’t be easy to control that.”

One example of that came when Mike Brosseau hit a homer off Kittredge in the intrasquad game. The roar of the crowd came a couple of seconds after the ball landed in the seats, as opposed to the immediate roar a normal crowd would make.

Those are just some of the things the Rays will continue to work through with a week until Opening Day. It’s still unclear how Major League Baseball will handle some of the policies and whether it’ll be up to each club to decide on the noise, but after one scrimmage, the Rays seem to be on board with the idea.

“I mean, it’s as realistic as it can be under the circumstances,” Brosseau said. “I liked the extra noise. Try to make the game as realistic and normal as possible. It’s not going to be a normal season, but if we can add that to get some familiarity with how we used to play, then I’m all for it.”