NY Yankees-Boston Red Sox Game Postponed By Covid-19 Outbreak

In yet another bad sign that the pandemic is far from over, tonight’s New York Yankees game against the Boston Red Sox was postponed by a Covid-19 outbreak.

While getting ready for the first game after the midsummer All-Star break, the Yankees saw positive tests for pitchers Jonathan Loaisiga, Nestor Cortes, Jr. and Wandy Peralta derail those plans.

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All-Star rightfielder Aaron Judge, catcher Kyle Higashioka, and third baseman Gio Urshela were sidelined by being placed in the Covid-19 protocols after close contact.

Tests for three other players are still pending, according to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. He indicated he expects those to turn out positive.

For their part, the Red Sox have asked their All-Stars who were in Denver to undergo additional testing today after being told of Judge’s case. He was joined at the game by fellow Yankees Gerrit Cole and Aroldis Chapman.

“It’s a fluid situation that could spread. It has spread to some degree,” Cashman said to ESPN. “We have three positives and we have three pending that we’ve had rapid tests on. … We’ll wait now for the lab tests to come back, which I’m assuming is going to be positive, as well. So that would increase our number to six, but we’re not at six yet. We’re at three confirmed.”

All three pitchers were fully vaccinated, as are most Yankees players. “As of right now, everybody’s OK,” Cashman said.

Major League Baseball now has to decide whether to postpone Friday’s game as well. That would be the second of a scheduled four-game series.

The Yankees-Red Sox postponement was the eighth Covid-19-related postponement this season, but the first in almost three months. Last year, 45 regular season games were postponed by the pandemic. Of those, two were not made up.

The Yankees also suffered a Covid-19 outbreak in May among its coaching staff. Pitching coach Matt Blake, third-base coach Phil Nevin and first-base coach Reggie Willits were affected.

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