Guardians hit with COVID-19 outbreak, manager Francona out

CHICAGO » The Cleveland Guardians are dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak that has sidelined manager Terry Francona and several of the team’s coaches, leading to the postponement of Wednesday’s game against the Chicago White Sox.

Shortly after Francona’s positive test became known, Major League Baseball said there were “multiple positive COVID-19 tests” in Cleveland’s organization and called off Wednesday’s series finale to allow for more testing and contact tracing. No makeup date has been announced.

It’s the first coronavirus-related postponement since the season started on April 7.

Guardians bench coach DeMarlo Hale, who was slotted to fill in for Francona, also tested positive, and Cleveland has “multiple coaches and other team support staff members” infected with the virus, according to team spokesman Bart Swain. There are no known current cases among Cleveland’s players. The team recently had an outbreak.

At this point, it’s unclear who will manage the Guardians when they open a three-game series in Minnesota on Friday.

Francona, who has dealt with serious health problems the past two seasons, tested positive for the virus a few hours before the scheduled first pitch. The team said Francona, 63, is not showing any symptoms. REDS 14, BREWERS 11 » Christian Yelich hit for a record-tying third cycle — all of them against Cincinnati — but Milwaukee’s rally fell short in the ninth inning in a loss to the Reds.

Tyler Stephenson drove in four runs with a pair of doubles and Colin Moran hit a threerun homer for Cincinnati.

Yelich became the sixth player in major league history to hit at least one home run, triple, double and single in the same game three times. He joined Trea Turner, Adrián Beltré, Babe Herman, Bob Meusel and John Reilly in accomplishing the feat.

YAKEES 5, BLUE JAYS 3 » Gleyber Torres drove in all New York’s runs with a go-ahead, threerun homer in the fourth inning and a tworun single, leading the surging Yankees over Toronto for their 15th win in 17 games.

PIRATES 5, DODGERS 3 » Daniel Vogelbach hit a go-ahead homer in the seventh inning, and Pittsburgh took a series from Los Angeles for the first time in nearly five years.

GIANTS 7, ROCKIES 1 » Brandon Crawford homered, leading Alex Cobb and San Francisco past Colorado for the Giants’ 10th straight win over the Rockies.

MARLINS 11, DIAMONDBACKS 3 » Jacob Stallings hit a go-ahead single in the ninth, Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with a three-run homer and Miami used an eight-run final inning to beat Arizona.

CUBS 7, PADRES 5 » Alfonso Rivas hit a tiebreaking two-run single against his hometown team in the eighth inning, and bangedup Chicago beat San Diego.