Magic’s advice: Don’t be selfish
Co-owner Magic Johnson and ex-manager Tommy Lasorda cheer on the Dodgers in
If baseball crowns a World Series champion in this truncated season, the players will have endured three months like no other. In order to navigate a season through a pandemic, the players will have to make accommodations: frequent testing, mask wearing and social distancing off the field, road trips with nowhere to go besides the ballpark and the hotel, even the occasional quarantine.
Three months of inconvenience.
Dodgers co-owner Magic Johnson has lived with a virus for 29 years, with a daily regimen of medication. If he doesn’t follow that protocol strictly, he puts his health at risk.
Johnson knows athletes, and he knows championships. He won five titles with the Lakers, and he said that what he did as a team leader in the 1980s is what baseball’s team leaders have to do in 2020.
“I used to say,” Johnson said, “we are shut down for the three months for the playoffs; nobody can go out; we are committing to each other; we’ve got three months to win a championship so we are committed to each other for three months; let’s roll.
“And that’s what we did. So leaders must step up.”
Justin Turner has done that for the Dodgers. The team has reported no breaches of protocol.
The league officials and the players are all in this together, Johnson said, but ultimately the players have to hold one another accountable for the season to reach its conclusion.
“It’s got to be the players,” Johnson said. “... You can’t be selfish,” he said. “You just can’t.”
Nationals, Mets: Threetime Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer exited the Nationals’ 3-1 loss to the visiting Mets because of the leg issue after laboring through just one inning. The injury overshadowed Juan Soto’s eventful 2020 debut for the World Series champs, and Mets pitcher Rick Porcello’s 150th career victory. “The best decision,” said Scherzer, who needed 27 pitches to get three outs then gave way to Erick Fedde, “was just to get out of the game.” He revealed afterward that he first felt something wrong with the hamstring before his previous start, six days earlier against the Blue Jays. The leg acted up again when Scherzer was doing his usual sprinting Tuesday ahead of facing the Mets. “He said he was good enough to pitch,” manager Dave Martinez said. “He went out there and he couldn’t really push off. I mean, that’s what we noticed.” Porcello (1-1) went seven innings, allowing one run and five hits and retiring the last 10 batters he faced. Soto went on the COVID-19 IL on opening day after failing a test — he thinks it was a false positive — and he put on quite a show Wednesday. In Soto’s first official at-bat since October, the 21-year-old outfielder had a run-scoring double. He singled his second time up. Soto also came up with a highlightreel, cap-and-sunglassesflying, head-first diving catch of a sinking liner off the bat of Andres Gimenez in the second.
Cardinals: Nearly a week after an outbreak of COVID-19 forced the Cardinals and their staff members to quarantine in Milwaukee and set the rest of their season into upheaval, the team retrned to the field for light workouts. Cards manager Mike Shildt called it “a breath of fresh air” after five days spent in The Pfister Hotel. The Cardinals had returned 13 positive tests in their traveling party, seven of them players, forcing them to suspend their season. They were finally cleared to travel back to St. Louis late Tuesday, when they returned negative tests for the second straight day. The Cardinals will resume their season against the rival Cubs on Friday night at Busch Stadium.
Blue Jays: Hyun-Jin Ryu combined with four relievers on a three-hitter and the visiting Blue Jays beat the shorthanded Braves 2-1. Ryu lasted only five innings but was dominant as he gave up only one hit, an infield single in the second. Ryu (1-1) struck out eight as he showed the form that produced a majors-leading 2.32 ERA for the Dodgers in 2019.
Extra innings: Adrian Houser dominated over seven innings and the Brewers beat the White Sox 1-0, snapping the hosts’ six-game win streak. Houser (1-0) gave up five hits and struck out five for the win. Eric Sogard drove in Mark Mathias with a single in the third, and that was all the Brewers needed . ... Indians anager Terry Francona remained absent from the Indians to get rest while dealing with a gastrointestinal issue that he’s battled for months. Francona, 61, missed his fourth game in a row as the Indians beat the visiting Reds 2-0.