PADRES AWAITING TESTING RESULTS

Postponements may mean doubleheader today against Giants

The only thing that happened at Petco Park on Saturday was cleaning and testing.

The hope is there will be baseball played there today.

The Padres and Giants were awaiting results of COVID-19 testing Saturday night to determine whether they could resume their series with a pair of seven-inning doubleheaders today.

According to three sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly, the Giants believe it was a false positive test result that prompted postponement of the teams’ games Friday and Saturday.

It wasn’t until about 20 minutes before the scheduled first pitch Friday that Major League Baseball notified the Padres that the games needed to be postponed as a precaution after a Giants player tested positive.

At press time, today’s schedule was tentative. If all COVID-19 tests came back negative, the Padres and Giants were to play a doubleheader beginning at 1: 10 p.m. Please check sandiegouniontribune.com/ sports for more info. Any game(s) would be on FSSD, 97.3-FM and 860-AM (Spanish).

The rest of the Giants’ traveling party, as well as all Padres players and coaches and those who come in contact with on-field personnel, were tested Saturday morning. Those tests were flown to the Utah lab that is handling testing for MLB.

Padres personnel then returned home. The Giants have self-isolated in their

Rays 5, Red Sox 4: Brandon Lowe and Austin Meadows homered, and AL East-leading Tampa Bay beat visiting Boston.

Yankees 2, Orioles 1 (10): Luke Voit hit a game-ending sacrifice fly leading off the 10th inning, and New York beat visiting Baltimore to open a 41 ⁄2-game lead over the Orioles for the American League’s eighth and final playoff berth.

Rangers 5-1, Athletics 2-10: Marcus Semien drove in four runs, Chris Bassitt (4-2) struck out eight over six innings and Oakland won at Texas to get a split in a doubleheader. In the opener, the Rangers quickly roughed up Daulton Jefferies (0-1), an Athletics pitcher making his big-league debut.

White Sox 14, Tigers 0: Jose Abreu hit a pair of three-run home runs and matched a career high with seven RBIS, and Chicago beat visiting Detroit for its eighth straight win against the Tigers.

Twins 8, Indians 4: Byron Buxton homered for the second straight night, Rich Hill (2-1) got his first win since July and Minnesota beat visiting Cleveland.

(IL) Blue Jays 3, Mets 2: Bo Bichette singled and scored in a successful return to the Toronto lineup and Alejandro Kirk also got a hit and scored in his big-league debut to help beat New York in Buffalo.

(IL) Royals 7, Pirates 4: Adalberto Mondesi homered and stole a base for the third consecutive game to help Kansas City beat visiting Pittsburgh. hotel rooms since Friday evening. And all areas of Petco Park where players are allowed underwent additional deep cleaning.

It was the first time a Padres game was postponed by a positive test. Their games brought MLB’S total to 43 Covid-related postponements.

If two (seven-inning) games are played today, that leaves one game to be made up. The assumption by the Padres is that game will be rescheduled as part of a doubleheader (also seven-inning games) during the teams’ season-ending series Sept. 25-27 in San Francisco.

If the Padres and Giants are unable to play today, that would leave three games to be made up during that final series — a marathon of at least 42 innings just before one or both begin the postseason. If they only have to make up one game, that final series will be scheduled for just five more innings than in a normal three-game series.

The Padres (29-17) lead the Giants (23-22) by 5½ games in the race for second place in the National League West. Any combination of Padres victories and Giants losses that totals 10 clinches second place for the Padres.

The Padres’ magic number to clinch a playoff berth was also nine heading into today’s games, as none of the teams vying for the eighth and final NL playoff spot can finish with more than 37 victories.

kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com

GREGORY BULL AP Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. sits with teammates after their game against the Giants was postponed on Friday, just before the first pitch.