(Reuters) – Major League Baseball (MLB) postponed Saturday’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and home team Milwaukee Brewers as another Missouri player and “multiple” staff members may be positive for COVID-19, according to initial rapid test results.
MLB, the opening week of which was marred by a COVID-19 outbreak, had already rescheduled Friday’s game between the two teams after two Cardinals players tested positive, and the league is scrambling to keep its coronavirus-shortened season on track.
Brewers center fielder Lorenzo Cain opted out of the rest of the 2020 season, the team said on Saturday, though it did not specify why.
“We fully support Lorenzo’s decision, and we will miss his talents on the field and leadership in the clubhouse,” President and General Manager David Stearns said in a written statement.
The Miami Marlins have been quarantined in Philadelphia since Sunday after numerous members of the club tested positive after playing against the Phillies, who head to the Bronx to play the Yankees Monday.
Three Phillies staffers had tested positive for COVID-19, MLB said, though two of those reports turned out to be false positives.
The league said on Friday that there were 29 new positive tests – 20 players and nine staff members – in the past week, comprising 0.2% of all tests taken in that time period.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
