Season’s second half gets off to a discouraging start
Vaccinated Yankee players test positive; game called
NEW YORK — The Yankees’ post-AllStar break opener against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night was postponed because of positive COVID-19 tests among vaccinated New York pitchers Jonathan Loaisiga, Nestor Cortes Jr. and Wandy Peralta.
“It’s a fluid situation that could spread. It has spread to some degree,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. “We have three positives and we have three pending that we’ve had rapid tests on. … We’ll wait now for the lab tests to come back, which I’m assuming is going to be positive, as well. So that would increase our number to six, but we’re not at six yet. We’re at three confirmed.”
Loaisiga went on the COVID-19 injured list Saturday, when the Yankees were in Houston, and he did not travel home with the team Sunday. Cortes and Peralta went on the COVID-19 IL on Thursday.
Cashman said all three were fully vaccinated, as are most of the players on the team. Among the three, two received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and the other was either Pfizer or Moderna, according to Cashman.
“Those players are doing well thus far,” he said. “And that would speak again to the belief that those vaccinations are working and ultimately they’re to protect us from severe illness and/or death.”
The three players awaiting lab results are in quarantine. Cashman would not say whether they include the Yankees’ AllStars who were in Denver: Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Aroldis Chapman.
MLB was conducting contact tracing under its protocols.
Cashman said Major League Baseball had not yet decided whether to postpone Friday’s second scheduled game of the four-game series.
This was the eighth COVID-related postponement this season but the first in nearly three months.
TRADE: The Atlanta Braves acquired Joc Pederson from the Chicago Cubs on Thursday, bolstering their outfield after losing Ronald Acuña Jr. to a season-ending knee injury.
Atlanta sent minor league first baseman Bryce Ball to Chicago for Pederson, who is batting .230 with 11 homers and 39 RBIs in 73 games. The 29-year-old Pederson, a star with the Albuquerque Isotopes in 2014, spent his first seven seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers before signing with the Cubs in free agency in February.
The Braves are looking to return to the playoffs, but their pursuit of a fourth straight NL East title took a hit when Acuña tore the ACL in his right knee during Saturday’s 5-4 victory over Miami.
Atlanta assumes the $1,935,484 remaining of Pederson’s $4.5 million salary. The deal includes a $10 million mutual option with a $2.5 million buyout and allows Pederson to earn $125,000 each for 500, 525, 550 and 575 plate appearances.
MARINERS: The 10-game suspension for Seattle Mariners pitcher Héctor Santiago for violating baseball’s sticky substance rules was upheld Thursday by MLB special adviser John McHale Jr.
Santiago will start serving the suspension Friday, when the Mariners open their post-All-Star break schedule at the Los Angeles Angels.
FEMALE CREW: Tuesday’s game between host Tampa Bay and Baltimore will be the first major league game called by an all-female broadcast team, per Major League Baseball and YouTube, which will show the game exclusively.
Melanie Newman, a member of the Orioles’ broadcast crew, will handle playby-play duties. Sarah Langs, an mlb.com reporter, will be the analyst. Alanna Rizzo, an MLB Network, will be the in-game reporter.