While there haven’t been as many sports postponements and cancellations over COVID-19 in 2021 as there were in 2020, there have still been a fair bit of events altered by the pandemic. The latest is Wednesday night’s Washington Nationals-Philadelphia Phillies game, which Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Jeff Passan of ESPN both reported has been postponed due to COVID-19 tests with Washington (including star shortstop Trea Turner, who was pulled mid-game from the teams’ game Tuesday after testing positive).
Nationals-Phillies game tonight in jeopardy, sources tell @TheAthletic. Nationals dealing with COVID outbreak. Trea Turner tested positive yesterday.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 28, 2021
Nationals-Phillies postponed, source tells @TheAthletic.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 28, 2021
The Nationals and Phillies game has been postponed because of Washington’s covid outbreak, sources tell ESPN. Multiple players and coaches have tested positive today after Trea Turner did yesterday. Size of outbreak remains to be seen, but may wind up as biggest in MLB this year.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 28, 2021
That all seems bad. Here’s the official news from the Phillies:
Tonight’s game between the Phillies and Nationals has been postponed. pic.twitter.com/1EA4qnReOm
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) July 28, 2021
And here’s more on the numbers involved:
Of the dozen Nationals players and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, the vast majority were vaccinated, sources tell ESPN. A number of the breakthrough positives came with those given the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 28, 2021
Davey Martinez says 12 positive tests in total, 4 of them players (including Trea Turner), plus "a bunch of staff members." A few have symptoms.
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) July 28, 2021
While this was only a regionally-televised game (on MASN for the Nationals and NBC Sports Philadelphia for the Phillies) rather than a nationally-televised one, it’s still notable to see it go down. Interestingly enough, this was a MLB Network promotional night:
Tonight is @MLBNetwork night at the ballpark!
RT to win a @Plesac19 autographed baseball and a MLB Network prize pack! pic.twitter.com/2WPqowecvE
— Citizens Bank Park (@PhilliesCBP) July 28, 2021
It’s also interesting that the current plan is to make this game up Thursday as part of a doubleheader. If that outbreak is as large as Passan is suggesting, that may involve a lot of call-ups for the Nationals.
[Ken Rosenthal on Twitter]
