Entire Cubs-Cardinals series postponed after eighth St Louis player tests positive
The entire three-game series between the Chicago Cubs and St Louis at Busch Stadium was postponed Friday night after two more Cardinals players and a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus.
Major League Baseball announced that the whole weekend set was off. Hours earlier, MLB said Friday night’s game had been scrapped to ensure everyone affected on the Cardinals was identified.
The Cardinals have been off since last Friday, when two players returned positive coronavirus tests. Eight players in total have tested positive, including star catcher Yadier Molina.
The Cardinals spent five days in quarantine in a Milwaukee hotel before finally being cleared to travel back to St Louis late Tuesday, when they returned negative tests for the second straight day. They got workouts in at home and had been prepared to return to the field Friday.
St Louis’ next game is scheduled for Monday at home against Pittsburgh. The Cubs are next set to play Tuesday at Cleveland.
The Cardinals and the Miami Marlins have been hit hardest by virus outbreaks since MLB started its shortened 60-game season. The Marlins missed more than a week before resuming play on Tuesday.
Among the players who confirmed they tested positive for Covid-19 were a pair of All-Stars in Molina and Paul
DeJong.
The sport’s latest coronavirus scare arrived one day after a new Harris poll that found 58% of Americans do not believe MLB should continue to play games – with the same percentage saying they don’t believe the season will be completed.
Before Friday’s postponement, the Cardinals had already added three doubleheaders against the Brewers to a previously scheduled series to make up their three games postponed last weekend. Milwaukee will host doubleheaders on 18 and 20 September and will serve as the home team in the opener of a twinbill in St. Louis on 25 September.
The Cardinals will make up this week’s series against the Detroit Tigers with doubleheaders on 13 August and 10 September. St Louis had been scheduled to play the Chicago White Sox at the Field of Dreams in Iowa on 13 August. Those teams will play in Chicago on 14 August instead.
MLB released its most recent testing numbers Friday. The league said there were 13,043 samples taken last week with 13 positive results for a 0.1% positive rate. During the monitoring phase, there have been 53,826 overall samples that have returned 71 positives for a 0.1% positive rate. Of those 71 positive results, 49 are players and 22 are staff.