Games back on! Bombers-Phils will play 4 starting Monday
The Yankees and Phillies will make up the four games they lost to the coronavirus last week on Monday, with two games in the Bronx and then two in Philadelphia.
The teams were scheduled to play the home-and-home series last week, but the Phillies were put on pause due to their contact with the Miami Marlins, who had 18 players and two coaches test positive.
The Yankees were scheduled to start a four-game series against the Rays in Florida on Thursday. They’ll now jam those four games into three days, including a doubleheader.
The Yankees were also scheduled to play the Orioles three times this coming week; they got in two of those games last week, and will make up the third at a later date.
In its statement announcing the schedule reshuffling, MLB said that at least three Cardinals players were positive, and that team’s games with the Brewers were on hold. But the Marlins are getting the green light to resume play this week (on Tuesday), as are the Phillies. The league claims that the Philadelphia staffers who tested positive were “false positives.”
JUDGE PLEA: LET US PLAY
After reports that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told the union he would shut the season down if players don’t do a better job of following the COVID-19 health and safety protocols, Aaron Judge said that would be a huge blow to the Yankees.
“Oh, that’d be tough,” the slugger, who hit a two-run ho
mer in the Yankees homeopening win over the Red Sox Friday, said. “Especially after all the hard work over this break to get ready for this season, no matter how many games we're going to play. We've been ready to play and ready to go, so to hear that the season could get shut down is pretty upsetting to hear.
“I don't know, we're just gonna wait and see, but we're gonna keep doing our part to make sure we all stay safe and stay on the field.”
The MLB commissioner told MLBPA chief executive director Tony Clark if players and teams don't do better at managing and trying to slow the spread of the coronavirus, he would shut down the season, according to an ESPN report.
While Manfred was threatening the players after leaking reports that the Marlins had players not following the protocols, it was Manfred and the league that allowed the Marlins, after three players tested positive, to go ahead with their game on Sunday against the Phillies.
Now, 18 Marlins players, two Phillies clubbies and a coach have also tested positive. It was also the league that allowed the Cubs and Reds to wait around inside in clubhouse during a rain delay that ended in a postponement this week, after which Cubs first baseman mocked the league's concern for player safety.
And the Yankees have twice had to wait out rain delays in their first six games, attempting to maintain a safe social distance in a space not made for it.
Before Friday night's home opener, the Yankees and Red Sox honored the frontline medical workers who helped flatten the curve back in March and April when New York was considered the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in New York. That included their own internist, Dr. Paul Lee, who advised the Yankees on how to try and stay safe and play a baseball season in the middle of a pandemic.
“What we had learned in the hospital was that really it is a team effort. And all it takes is one person being careless bringing it into the clubhouse. And before you know it, the whole team is going to get it,” Lee said after the ceremonies. “And I think that everyone from [Aaron Boone] to the leadership in the organization emphasizes that we're only as good as we can be if we all are mindful and careful and look out to prevent it from coming into the team to begin with. So I think that the first thing is that that team really needs to work together to make sure that there is no weak link that jeopardizes this whole season.”