Yahoo Finance Report: Nationals' game against Braves postponed as COVID-19 outbreak continues
The Washington Nationals will have to wait even longer to start the 2021 season.
The Nationals' game against the Atlanta Braves on Monday was postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak within the Washington organization, according to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal.
The team will open its season on Tuesday, MLB announced on Sunday night.
MLB announces Nationals first game will officially be Tuesday, against the Braves pic.twitter.com/yGvVe32ULs
— Hannah Keyser (@HannahRKeyser) April 5, 2021
MLB postponed the Nationals’ season opener against the New York Mets on Thursday after multiple people in the organization tested positive for the coronavirus. The entire series ended up being postponed as a result.
According to the Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty, four players tested positive and seven others are in quarantine after being considered close contacts. A “majority” of those players would have been on the team’s roster for opening day.
Of the players who would be unavailable, Mike Rizzo said earlier that a “majority” of them would have been on the 26-man roster for Opening Day. Not all, though, meaning it’s not necessarily 11 replacements coming from the alternate site.
— Jesse Dougherty (@dougherty_jesse) April 4, 2021
The team returned no new positive coronavirus tests on Friday, manager Mike Rizzo said Sunday, which is a good sign. The Nationals haven’t held a team workout since the outbreak began, though will get to have their first team workout on Monday before the series starts on Tuesday.
“Position players haven’t worked out in a week. And pitchers haven’t thrown any competitive pitch in that same period of time. It’s something that we’re taking very seriously here. We’re thinking of creative ways under the protocol and under the guidance to get these guys as ready as possible,” Rizzo said earlier on Sunday, via The Associated Press.
“It makes a lot of sense for baseball, player protection-wise, to have these guys go through their paces in a full workout before we take the field.”
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