BRONX, N.Y. – The New York Yankees’ home opener set for Wednesday has been postponed, as the Bronx Bombers will instead play a two-game series in Baltimore “out of an abundance of caution” due to coronavirus concerns, Major League Baseball announced Tuesday afternoon.
The Yankees — who were scheduled to play a four-game set against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Monday and Tuesday and at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday and Thursday — will play the Orioles at Camden Yards the next two days to provide “more scheduling flexibility later in the season,” the league said.
It’s not yet confirmed when the Yankees-Phillies series will be held, but MLB said further rescheduling during the week of August 3 will be announced later this week. The Yankees are scheduled to head to Baltimore for a three-game series August 3 to 5.
The decision to postpone that series comes after the Phillies were tested for COVID-19 after playing the Miami Marlins in Philadelphia on opening weekend. Over a dozen Marlins players and coaches tested positive for the virus, sparking fears it could have spread to the Phillies.
The Phillies players reportedly did not test positive after a first round of coronavirus tests, but the team was having a second round of tests on Tuesday.
The Orioles had been scheduled to play a home-and-home series against Miami, but MLB announced that all Marlins’ games had been postponed through Sunday.
“Given the current circumstances, 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,” the league said in a statement.
With the schedule shift, the Yankees’ home opener is now set for Friday against the Boston Red Sox.
The Yankees are not scheduled to play the Marlins until September 25 to 27 in the Bronx, the final weekend of the regular season.
The schedule shuffling comes after sources told the Associated Press the Tuesday Yankees-Phillies game was postponed. The Yanks had already traveled to Philadelphia before the original start of their series.
This all comes just a week into the MLB season, a campaign already shortened to 60 games due to the pandemic.
Teams are playing regional schedules to cut down on travel, but unlike the NBA and NHL plans, they are not competing in a so-called “bubble” setup where all players and staff remain in one or two locations for the duration of the season.
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Main image: Julio Cortez/AP.
