The saga that is the St. Louis Cardinals’ season suffered another setback on Friday when their weekend series against the Chicago Cubs was canceled. A Cardinals player tested positive for COVID-19, a source told ESPN.com.
As of Friday, eight St. Louis players have tested positive for the
coronavirus since last week.
Major League Baseball announced the decision for Friday’s game to be postponed so that additional testing and contact tracing could be administered. A source later came out and said that the remaining games scheduled for this weekend against Chicago would be postponed until a later date.
When Was the Last Cardinals Game?
Because of the positive testing, the Cardinals haven’t played since July 29. St. Louis had previously come out and said that 13 positive tests came back from the team’s traveling party, with seven coming from players. St. Louis players did return to the field on Wednesday for light workouts after being cleared to head back from Milwaukee late Tuesday.
Also on Friday, MLB released the most recent testing numbers throughout the league. There were 13,043 samples taken last week with 13 positive test results for a 0.1% positive rate. During the monitoring phase, 53,826 samples have returned 71 positive tests for 0.13% positive rate. In those 71 tests that were positive, 49 were players, and 22 are the staff.
Two of the Cards’ All-Stars, Yadier Molina and Paul DeJong, were among those that tested positive. Another former All-Star, right-handed pitcher Carlos Martinez, was placed on the injured list, but no reason was given, raising suspicions among those covering the team and league. Infielders Rangel Ravelo and Edmundo Sosa tested positive, as did relief pitchers Junior Fernandez and Kodi Whitley.
How Did the Cardinals Get the Coronavirus?
Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said earlier in the week the team still has no idea how the coronavirus spread throughout the clubhouse. Among the theories is that the organization may have been in contact with someone asymptomatic who came into contact with the St. Louis players.
Even before Friday’s announcement that the rest of the series with the Cubs would be postponed, the Cardinals already had three scheduled doubleheaders because of the games they missed. What’s even more fascinating is that the Milwaukee Brewers are the opponents in all of those series. Milwaukee will host doubleheaders on Sept. 18 and 20 and will be the home team in the opener of the doubleheader scheduled to take place in St. Louis on Sept. 25.
The Cardinals will now have to make up series from this past week against the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 13 and Sept. 10. Also, the Cardinals were to play the Chicago White Sox at the Field of Dreams in Iowa on Aug. 13. Now, the two teams will play at Guaranteed Rate Field on Aug. 14 instead.
It’s genuinely a disastrous situation for the Cardinals and MLB. Although, the other team that had numerous cases of the coronavirus – the Miami Marlins – is doing pretty well right now. Maybe there is something to all of this time off and using young, hungry players looking to make a name for themselves.
