Phillies-Yankees home-and-home series postponed due to COVID-19

The upcoming Phillies-Yankees home-and-home series set to take place this week has officially been postponed.

The COVID-19 outbreak suffered by the Miami Marlins has resulted in their schedule being postponed through the weekend and, as a result of potential exposure to Phillies players, coaches and staff this weekend in Philadelphia, has resulted in the Phils’ entire four-game set with New York being postponed this week, too. Major League Baseball released a statement regarding the postponements.

“... out of an abundance of caution, the remainder of the home-and-home series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees has been postponed (NYY @ PHI tonight, and PHI @ NYY Wednesday and Thursday). As a result of these postponements, the Yankees will now play the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards on Wednesday and Thursday in order to create more scheduling flexibility later in the season. Additional rescheduling during the week of August 3rd will be announced later this week.”

MLB’s statement urged all parties to “be diligent with the [coronavirus] protocols in all ways, both on and off the field” and that they “will continue to bolster our protocols and make any necessary adjustments.”

Phillies players returned to Citizens Bank Park today for more testing, and multiple reports indicated no Phils players or coaches tested positive for COVID-19 based on yesterday’s test results, but one visiting clubhouse staffer did. It’s also protocol to isolate after coming into contact with people who have been infected with coronavirus, and additional tests this week could result in positives for those that tested negative on Monday.

“Given the current circumstances,” the statement reads, “MLB believes that it is most prudent to allow the Marlins time to focus on providing care for their players and planning their baseball Operations for a resumption early next week.”

MLB’s statement painted a rosy picture of testing throughout baseball over the last few days, Miami notwithstanding.

“In over 6,400 tests conducted since Friday, July 24th, there have been no new positives of on-field personnel from any of the other 29 clubs. This outcome is in line with encouraging overall data since the June 27th start of testing. Through last Thursday, July 23rd, 99 of the 32,640 samples — 0.3% — had been positive.”

If the Phillies remain COVID-free throughout the rest of the week, their next scheduled game would be on Friday night in Philadelphia for a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays. In that series, the Phils will be the road team, as Canada has prevented the Jays from playing games in their home city of Toronto. The Phils have a three-game series scheduled against the Marlins in Miami next week, although that could change in this fluid situation.