BALTIMORE -- If a team falls and there's no one there to see it, does it make a difference in the standings?

If the answer were no, then for the Baltimore Orioles, losing two out of three to the visiting Toronto Blue Jays wouldn't have mattered. It wouldn't have dropped them four games behind Toronto in the American League East standings. It wouldn't have taken them out of sole possession of the second AL wild card and into a tie with Detroit.

Unfortunately for Baltimore, the answer is yes. The outcome of its divisional showdown with Toronto did matter. Not that you'd know it by the turnout, or lack thereof, at Camden Yards.

For Wednesday night's 5-3 loss, which was the deciding game of the series, the Orioles drew 16,161 fans. The scary part is, that number represents the largest crowd of the three-game set. The total attendance for the series, a divisional confrontation that was arguably Baltimore's most crucial of the season, was 47,776, a figure that was boosted by what looked like several thousand boisterous Jays fans. For comparison's sake, when Toronto hosted the non-rival Angels last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the average attendance was 45,791.

There's no denying that school being back in session in Baltimore played a large role in the small numbers at the gate over the past few days (Toronto’s kids are still on summer break), but given the opponent and the gravity of the series, the preponderance of empty seats at Camden Yards was borderline shocking. Just as it was a couple of weeks ago when school wasn't in session yet, and the Birds still averaged only 26,000-plus during a two-game series with the Red Sox. Add it all up, and these are more than blips on the radar. This is not an anomaly anymore. It's a pattern, and a disturbing one at that.

On the year, the O's are averaging 26,791 fans per game, which ranks 20th in MLB. Among teams that are currently in line for a playoff spot or tied for one, only the Indians (28th, 19,617) rank lower. Last season, Baltimore ranked 19th in attendance at 29,374, which was down from 13th (30,805) in 2014. For a club that has won more games than any American League team since the beginning of the 2012 and is within reach of making the postseason for the third time in five years, the trend appears to be going the wrong way.

"It's a Monday night," shortstop J.J. Hardy said when asked about the small crowd following the series opener. "There's a lot of stadiums that don't fill up on Monday nights. Obviously, when our fans come out, it's a lot of fun to play in front of them."

While there was some validity to Hardy's analysis, Camden Yards was just about as unfull on Tuesday and Wednesday as it was on Monday. To be sure, there are other factors that could potentially explain the drop-off, regardless of the day of the week. Ticket prices have gone up, a byproduct of all the money the Orioles spent in the free-agent market. After last year's civic unrest in the wake of the Freddie Gray incident, some would say Baltimore City has lost some of its appeal. The televised product offered by regional network MASN is so glossy that many would rather watch the game from home than head to the park. The Washington Nationals and Baltimore Ravens, neither of whom existed when Camden Yards first opened, continue to compete for fans' hard-earned dollars.

Despite all those reasons, in a place that prides itself on being one of the nation's best baseball towns, you'd think that a winning team in the midst of a pennant race would be enough to fill the stands. Or at least come close to filling the stands. But based on the turnout in recent days, that's simply not the case.

Maybe things will change if and when Baltimore makes it to the postseason. And if the O's miss the playoffs? Well, if there was nobody there to see it, then maybe it never happened.