Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Game postponed due to virus outbreak
Marlins’ COVID outbreak forces Phils’ to cancel game vs. Yankees
On the day that 24 NHL teams were arriving in Toronto and Edmonton to implant themselves in a “playoff bubble,” the bubble burst for major league baseball.
Despite a more than 100-page protocol drafted for the intent of keeping its players safe for a 60-game season, the Miami Marlins imploded into a COVID-19 hotspot ... and happened to be at Citizens Bank Park when the explosion occurred.
Despite three players, including would-be starting pitcher Jose Urena, testing positive for the virus Sunday, the Marlins made a decision to carry on with the series finale and the Phillies did not protest that decision. It resulted in an 11-6 victory for the Marlins and a loss for the league in general.
Thankfully, the team decided to stay at its Philadelphia hotel Sunday night pending additional testing Monday. That’s when it became clear an outbreak was occurring, as eight more players and two coaches tested positive.
Those results forced the Marlins to cancel Monday night’s scheduled home-opener against the Baltimore Orioles at Marlins Park. The team, likely fielding a lineup of many minor leaguers, is expected to play the rest of that series against the Orioles in Baltimore rather than in Miami, which has been one of the hottest of COVID-19 outbreak posts in the United States for the past few weeks.
Meanwhile, since this outbreak happened in their ballpark, the Phillies also were forced to postpone their game Monday night against the Yankees. At last word, the visitors clubhouse and the field were being fumigated, and it is being speculated that the Yankees would send down their clubhouse staff for Tuesday’s second game of the series, if it’s played.
The Phillies are scheduled to play road games at Yankee Stadium Wednesday and Thursday, so the possibility would remain that the Tuesday home game could be played in New York, perhaps as part of a doubleheader later in the week.
No announcements had been made out of a pre-scheduled virtual meeting Monday afternoon between officials of all 30 MLB teams, but reports are that officials are crossing their fingers that this outbreak will remain only a Marlins problem and that the schedule can carry on in full.
Then again, several players around the league have tested positive, and Phillies pitching coach Bryan Price was absent from the last two weekend games for no announced reason.
Following their flat performance in the series finale the prior day, the Phillies went through Monday as if in a state of denial. The club made no announcement of its postponement and didn’t post anything on it, on either its media Twitter account or web page until late in the afternoon. The announcement came only through the league (and the Yankees), and MLB.com ran a “story” noting the “PhilliesYankees postponement is out of an abundance of caution, given the Marlins completed a series in Philadelphia over the weekend. The Yankees would have occupied the same clubhouse as the Marlins at the Phillies’ facility.”
Yeah, you can never be too careful.
No abundance of caution had been practiced after those three positive Marlins tests early on Sunday, however. And by Monday night, nothing had been said about what would be happening with Tuesday’s game, either through the league or the silent Phillies officials.
Perhaps everybody was told by MLB to watch their P’s and M’s, since the Phillies and the Marlins really shouldn’t have played Sunday after the first spate of positive tests emanating from the Citizens Bank Park visitors clubhouse.
Marlins president Derek Jeter didn’t bother mentioning that, however, when he released a statement Monday upon postponing his team’s game with the Orioles.
“The health of our players and staff has been and will continue to be our primary focus as we navigate through these uncharted waters,” Jeter’s statement read. “After a successful Spring 2.0, we now have experienced challenges once we went on the road and left Miami. Postponing tonight’s home opener was the correct decision to ensure we take a collective pause and try to properly grasp the totality of this situation.”
Prior to Sunday’s win, Marlins scheduled starting pitcher Urena and two other regulars, Garrett Cooper and Harold Ramirez, tested positive and were pulled from the active roster. The Marlins did not reveal the reasons for their absences from the lineup, as per the rules that have been agreed upon between MLB and its players union, in which positive COVID results would only be revealed if the player so desires.
Cooper and Ramirez had played in the first two games of the series, which might be of some cocern to the Phillies.
“We’re always concerned,” manager Joe Girardi said Sunday via a Zoom chat. “I think you see our guys take precautions on the field. The good thing is when we do see players on the other team, it’s on the field and outside ... there’s usually a lot of distance. You hope that protects our club. The problem is that when somebody gets it inside our clubhouse for a day or two, and then has the ability to spread it around to other people . ... That’s what sounds like happened there.”
Marlins catcher and former Phillie Jorge Alfaro had been put on the injured list prior to the start of the season, again with no accompanying explanation, but his absence is also said to likely be virus-related.
“We’re taking risks every day,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said Sunday. “That’s what the players all around the league are doing. You travel all the time ... it’s a risk that we take. We’re going to have to be adjustable, we’re going to have to be flexible, we’re going to have to be patient.”
Mattingly had taken his team first to Atlanta, where they opened with a couple of exhibition games. He criticized the situation in Atlanta, saying it was overcrowded.
“We had all these guys and nowhere to go,” Mattingly told reporters then. “Then we’ve got a zillion guys in the dugout — so there’s no way we’re social distancing.”
It was speculated Monday that members of the Marlins were first exposed to the virus while in Atlanta. Players, coaches and/ or team staff members who test positive have to quarantine, and aren’t allowed to play until testing negative twice and showing no trace of fever for a three-day period.
While all this was going on, the NHL accepted teams into its two respective “bubble” locations for exhibitions and mini-tourneys, followed by a nearly full set of Stanley Cup playoff series.
The NHL proudly released a statement Monday claiming that of 4,256 COVID-19 tests taken of its league membership during the week of July 18-24, no one tested positive for the virus. Take that, baseball. Of course, all that may change once players start rubbing noses together in live competition.