Giants postponed again, due to smoke
With air conditions considered “very unhealthy” in the Seattle area on Tuesday and an Air Quality alert in effect in the region until Thursday at noon, the San Francisco Giants are headed back to the Bay Area.
A two-game series scheduled to begin Tuesday at T-Mobile Park in Seattle was postponed and the teams are now expected to play the games this week at Oracle Park in San Francisco.
The league has not yet determined whether the Giants and Mariners will play a doubleheader on Wednesday or if the teams will take advantage of a mutual off day on Thursday and play one game on each of the next two days.
Tuesday’s postponement marks the fourth time in five days the Giants will not take the field as games scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Petco Park were postponed due to a positive COVID-19 result.
The Giants were able to play a doubleheader on Sunday in San Diego against the Padres after subsequent tests concluded that left fielder Alex Dickerson’s positive result was either a false-positive or contaminated sample, but the club had a scheduled off day in Seattle on Monday before it was determined the two-game set against the Mariners would be moved to San Francisco.
The Oakland A’s played a doubleheader against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on Monday when the Air Quality Index, which measures air pollution levels on a scale from 0-500, hovered above 200 throughout the day. The AQI on Tuesday in Seattle remained above 200 throughout the morning and several local news outlets reported air conditions were not expected to improve until Friday at the earliest.
MLB has historically left decisions regarding postponements due to air quality up to home teams and local health authorities, but it is unclear if the league stepped in following complaints from the Oakland A’s regarding the conditions on Monday in Seattle.