Major League Baseball’s Rotten Week Ends in More Cancellations

(Bloomberg) -- The second week of Major League Baseball's attempt to play a season during a global pandemic couldn't have gone much worse.

It started with a full-fledged Covid-19 outbreak in the Miami Marlins' clubhouse. As of Friday, 18 of the team's players have tested positive, according to ESPN. News of the first results emerged during last weekend's series against the Philadelphia Phillies, forcing Sunday's projected starting pitcher Jose Urena from the lineup. Still, the team voted to play the final game of that opening series, and it's become the last game they played so far this season.

That decision set off a chain reaction, forcing the the Phillies to cancel back-to-back home and away series against the New York Yankees. Upon learning that a coach and home clubhouse staffer tested positive, the team shut down all activities at its home ballpark until further notice. The team has since postponed the series this weekend against the Toronto Blue Jays.

On Tuesday, Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said the Major League Baseball season may be in peril.

“You just have to watch this, it could put it in danger,” Fauci said during an interview with ABC.

Then on Friday news came out that two St. Louis Cardinals tested positive. MLB then canceled the team's scheduled Friday match against the Milwaukee Brewers. In total, six teams, or 20% of the league, will be sidelined Friday in an attempt to stymie any additional spread of the virus. As of now, the two teams are expected to resume play on Saturday. They'll make up Friday's game with a doubleheader on Sunday, which would be the first under MLB's newly modified rule that reduces the number of innings in each game to seven.

The number of shortened doubleheaders could grow: There's been no word yet on whether the Minnesota Twins, the Cardinals' opponent earlier this week, will postpone their game tonight against the Cleveland Indians as a precaution.

Finally, the Marlins, who are still quarantined at a Philadelphia hotel, have decided to bus their infected players back to Miami, according to ESPN. The 1,200-mile (1,931-kilometer) trip may take them into the path of Hurricane Isaias, which is scheduled to make landfall on the East Coast this weekend. At least one of their healthy players, Isan Diaz, is considering opting out of the season as a result of the widespread infection among the team, according to MLB Network.

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