More Games Postponed With 4 More Coronavirus Cases for Cardinals

Major League Baseball’s sputtering effort to play in a pandemic took another discouraging turn on Saturday when one St. Louis Cardinals player and three team staffers tested positive for the coronavirus, forcing the postponement of their weekend series in Milwaukee.

After deciding earlier Saturday to postpone the game for that night, M.L.B. announced several hours later that it had called off the Sunday doubleheader, meaning that the teams will not play any games in their series unless they can be made up elsewhere during the densely scheduled 60-game season. The Cardinals’ Monday game in Detroit was also postponed, but the league said it would be made up as part of a doubleheader later in the week.

The Cardinals, who also had two players receive positive tests on Friday, now have six positives in their traveling party and have become the second team, with the Miami Marlins, to experience an outbreak less than two weeks into the truncated M.L.B. season. The Marlins have had 20 people, including 18 players, test positive since last Sunday.

With the Cardinals-Brewers postponements, six teams — comprising 20 percent of the league — have been shut down this weekend for reasons related to the virus. The Marlins and the Phillies have not played since last Sunday, when the Marlins learned of their outbreak before a game in Philadelphia. With those teams out of action, their scheduled opponents for this weekend, the Washington Nationals and the Toronto Blue Jays, have also been off.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/01/sports/baseball/coronavirus-cardinals.html