Phils-Nats among games postponed

In a typically awkward way, Major League Baseball has been pulled into America’s discussion about racial injustice.

Some teams are playing. Some aren’t. Some have played with individual players sitting out.

But across the sport, one theme became clear: Baseball shouldn’t avoid potentially difficult conversations and decisions regarding social issues. Though the process may be imperfect, there was agreement that coaches, players and teams should speak their mind.

“This is at the forefront now,” said Oakland infielder Tony Kemp, who is Black. “By sitting out tonight’s game, I feel like it’s just a small building block of what we want to see. These couple days are historic times in sports. One day our kids are going to look back and ask us what was going on and what did we do to help bring awareness to these issues in the world and we’re going to say, ‘One game we just decided not to play.’”

Oakland’s game at Texas was among five that were postponed by Thursday evening, along with Philadelphia at Washington, Minnesota at Detroit, Colorado at Arizona and Boston at the Blue Jays in Buffalo.

Some players, including St. Louis Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty, were frustrated there wasn’t a more unified response.

“It’s tough because yesterday

Los Angeles San Diego Colorado Giants Arizona

Thursday’s games W

23 19 16 15 13

L

9 13 15 17 19

Pct

.719 .594 .516 .469 .406 would have been the day for leaguewide action, and it wasn’t able to happen league-wide yesterday,” Flaherty said. “Hopefully it could happen today, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be able to happen today.”

The decisions not to play Thursday night came a day after three MLB games were postponed in response to the police shooting of a Black man, 29-year-old Jacob Blake, in Wisconsin last weekend.

The Phillies met Thursday about 5½ hours ahead of the scheduled start of the game at Nationals Park. After 30 to 40 minutes of discussion, the players decided to not play.

Phillies manager Joe Girardi passed that along in a phone call to Nationals counterpart Dave Martinez, who said the Nationals would join their opponents in sitting out.

“We’re in this together — this fight for equality and social justice,” Girardi said. “In this world, I’ve always believed, there’s two things you can’t live without. It has nothing to do with food and water. It’s love and hope. And I don’t think we’re doing a good job in our country giving that to everyone and I think that needs to be the focus here.”

A statement from The Players Alliance, which consists of more than 100 current and former Black players, said current players will donate their salaries from Thursday and Friday in “supporting our efforts to combat racial inequality and aid the Black families and communities deeply affected in the wake of recent events.”

GB

_ 4 6 1⁄2 8 10

San Diego 10, Seattle 7, 7 innings, 1st game

Pittsburgh 4, St. Louis 3, 8 innings, 1st game

L.A. Dodgers 7, Giants 0, 7 innings, 1st game

Cincinnati at Milwaukee, 1st game Colorado at Arizona, ppd. Seattle at San Diego, ppd., 2nd game Philadelphia at Washington, ppd. Pittsburgh at St. Louis, ppd., 2nd game L.A. Dodgers at Giants, ppd., 2nd game Miami at N.Y. Mets, 7:10 p.m.

Cincinnati at Milwaukee, ppd., 2nd game

Friday’s games

N.Y. Mets (TBD) at N.Y. Yankees (Montgomery 2-1), 4:05 p.m., 1st game Atlanta (Erlin 0-0) at Philadelphia (Wheeler 3-0), 7:05 p.m. Chicago Cubs (Hendricks 3-3) at Cincinnati (Mahle 0-1), 7:10 p.m.

Tampa Bay (TBD) at Miami (Mejia 0-2), 7:10 p.m.

Washington (Sanchez 1-3) at Boston (Perez 2-3), 7:30 p.m.

N.Y. Yankees (TBD) at N.Y. Mets (TBD), ppd., 2nd game

L.A. Dodgers (May 1-1) at Texas (Minor 0-5), 8:05 p.m.

Pittsburgh (Holland 1-1) at Milwaukee (Burnes 0-0), 8:10 p.m. Cleveland (McKenzie 1-0) at St. Louis (Ponce de Leon 0-2), 8:15 p.m.

San Diego (Richards 1-1) at Colorado (Senzatela 3-1), 8:40 p.m.

Giants (Anderson 1-1) at Arizona (Weaver 1-4), 9:40 p.m.