Staying sharp tough through long layoffs
Coronavirus spurs unique challenges
In baseball, a day off is something to savor.
An entire series is a different matter.
“In baseball, it’s very routine-oriented, and (when) you start interrupting routines, it gets a little hairy,” Detroit manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We’ll just ad-lib and do the best we can with it. Can’t control it, so no sense in getting too upset about it.”
Gardenhire was speaking Tuesday, after the Tigers’ oneday break turned into a four-day layoff. Detroit’s series against St. Louis was called off because of issues the Cardinals are having with the coronavirus — and that’s just one major gap in the schedule already brought on by COVID-19. When a team is sidelined by the virus, it affects future opponents and leaves players and managers in a holding pattern.
“Being a starting pitcher, you’re creatures of habit, and so it’s nice to get on a routine,” Milwaukee left-hander Brett Anderson said. “But with the way 2020 is going, you kind of have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.”
Anderson was supposed to start Friday when the Brewers hosted St. Louis. But then that series was called off, and he had to wait until Monday before taking the mound.
“You have to be in the mindset that you’re going to go in there and pitch the next day, even if in the back of your mind, you don’t think it’s going to happen, based off what’s happening with the Cardinals and stuff,” he said. “I did the day-before-my-start process four days in a row.”
By the time the Brewers hosted the Chicago White Sox on Monday, they’d had four straight days off — and they lost Monday and Tuesday after returning. Philadelphia dealt with a longer break. The Phillies played their first three games against Miami, which then was sidelined because of a virus outbreak within the team.
The Phillies, who had shared a field with the Marlins, went a week without playing a game. MLB subjected the Phillies to more intensive testing, and no positives among players were found. There were three positives among staff, but MLB said two appeared to be false positives.
Philadelphia’s players weren’t allowed to work out at their ballpark Thursday and Friday. They resumed group training over the weekend but didn’t have an ideal way of preparing to face Gerrit Cole and the Yankees on Monday.
“A lot of time in the cage,” Philadelphia first baseman
Rhys Hoskins said. “Obviously, we’d like to be able to see some live arm, but with how quickly we had to start back up again, there weren’t a lot of guys that needed to throw live on the field, and then also be ready to pitch (Monday).”