Entire PiratesCards 3-game series postponed over virus woes

PITTSBURGH — The entire three-game series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis that was set to begin Monday night at Busch Stadium has been postponed while the Cardinals deal with a COVID-19 outbreak.

There have now been 27 games postponed by Major League Baseball

because of coronavirus concerns. The Cardinals have not played since July 30 and have had 13 games scrapped.

Miami and Philadelphia each had seven games postponed earlier and have returned to the field since the disruptions.

MLB said Sunday night that the league and the Cardinals “believe it is prudent to conduct additional testing while players and staff are quarantined before the team returns to play.”

The Cardinals’ weekend series at home against the Chicago Cubs was called off Friday after two more St. Louis players and a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus. Eight of their players in total have tested positive, including star catcher Yadier Molina.

On Sunday morning, the Pirates learned that Monday night’s opener in St. Louis had been postponed.

“Obviously we don’t want the whole series to get canceled,” Pittsburgh catcher Jacob Stallings said before a home game against Detroit. “I think we’re grateful that we get a day off. It’s been obviously a tough stretch. Our pitching could use it. And you know, we’ve had a tough schedule to start the year, so grateful for the day off, but then also everybody doesn’t want three games canceled; we want to get those games in.”

Popyrin withdraws from US Open; Krueger gets wild-card spot

NEW YORK — Alexei Popyrin withdrew from the U.S. Open on Sunday, allowing 2012 champion Andy Murray to move into the main draw.

That means Murray can relinquish the wild-card invitation he received from the U.S. Tennis Association, which now will be given to American Mitchell Krueger.

Popyrin is a 21-year-old Australian who is ranked 103rd. He joins Australians Ash Barty and Nick Kyrgios as players who are skipping the U.S. Open, which is scheduled to be played without spectators amid the coronavirus pandemic in New York starting on Aug. 31.

The 26-year-old Krueger, who is based in Texas, is ranked 195th.

Slater homers twice, Cueto pitches well in Giants’ win over Dodgers

LOS ANGELES —

Austin Slater had his first multi-homer game, Johnny Cueto took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and San Francisco beat Los Angeles, 5-4 on Saturday night.

Slater hit solo shots over the wall in center in the third and fifth innings off Clayton Kershaw and became only the seventh player to hit two homers in the same game off the Dodgers’ ace.

It was a tough night for Kershaw (1-1), who has traditionally dominated the Giants. The right-hander allowed four runs and six hits in 4.1 innings with a walk and six strikeouts.

Cueto (1-0) only allowed a third-inning walk to Chris Taylor in the first five innings before hitting a wall in the sixth. He went 5.2 innings and allowed four runs on two hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

Mike Yastrzemski also homered in the third to extend San Francisco’s lead to

2-0.

Reds’ youngest fan? Sonogram among ‘spectators’ at games

CINCINNATI, Ohio — This surprise baby reveal was a home run.

When Aaron Nemo was asked to help his brother and sister-in-law announce they were expecting their first child, he wanted to hit it out of the park. So he decided to cut out their sonogram picture and submit baby Nemo to be a fan cutout at the Cincinnati Reds’ spectator-less Great American Ballpark, WXIX-TV reports.

“I wish I could say my heart was in an amazing place from the beginning, and I was just there to do something very sweet, but I kind of wanted to do something weird,” Aaron Nemo, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, told the station.

Adam Nemo, who lives in Florida with his wife, says he didn’t expect his brother to announce the pregnancy in the seats of a ballpark. But his father is a Reds fan, and he was wearing a Reds T-shirt when his wife got an ultrasound.

“When we thought about announcing, I was like, ‘Let’s give it to Aaron, let’s let him come up with something,’” his wife, Kayleigh, said.

Both brothers say watching games has now turned into “finding Nemo” as they scan the stands for the cutout.

“Every time there’s a foul ball down the right-field or left-field line, I pause it and am like, ‘Is that, is that the baby?” Aaron said.