An anonymous Cincinnati Reds player took the COVID-19 test through Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports and The Athletic.
The Cincinnati game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday at 6:10 p.m. ET is not known lately, but ESPN’s Jeff Passan has reported that it is “likely” to be postponed.
The Reds beat the Pirates 8-1 on Friday in Cincinnati. Lately they received the Pirates on Saturday and Sunday before traveling to Kansas City for a two-game series with the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday.
Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette showed Rosenthal’s report and said the contact search is underway after the positive test.
As noted through Jon Heyman of MLB Network and WFAN Sports Radio, all 30 groups were scheduled to play Saturday for the first time since Sunday, July 26, but that is unlikely at this time.
Passan also provided this note: “People around baseball were hoping that with limited cases over the more than two weeks for Cardinals players and staff, the return of St. Louis would mean some normality. With the positive case of COVID in Cincinnati, as Ken Rosenthal first reported, that’s obviously still not the case.”
CoVID-19 outbreaks at the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals forced either group to stay out of the season’s games.
Miami is back in action and catching up with the rest of the league. The 9-4 Marlins have played thirteen games now, however, there are still 8 groups with a month and a role to play in the normal season.
The 2-3 cardinals will have an even bigger mountain to climb: they have only played five games this year, but will retire to play 53 games in 44 days, adding 11 doubles.
The groups the Marlins and Cardinals faced were also slightly the others, although the recently followed seven-inning double-name rule allowed the franchises to play faster.
MLB is looking to complete a normal season of 60 games before a 16-team playoff amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has more than 20.73 million cases shown and 751,000 deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
The United States recorded more than 5.1 million cases and 164,800 deaths, 55,907 cases showed Friday.
The Nats star pitcher left Friday’s start opposite the Orioles after 16 pitches with an obvious hand injury.