MIAMI — The New York Mets received two positive tests for COVID-19 in their organization Thursday, Major League Baseball said, prompting the postponement of two games.
The finale of the Mets’ four-game series at Miami was called off an hour before it was scheduled to start Thursday night. Friday’s game between the Mets and New York Yankees at Citi Field was also postponed to allow for additional testing and contact tracing to be conducted, MLB said.
The Marlins were still scheduled to travel to Washington for a series against the Nationals beginning Friday. The Marlins had a coronavirus outbreak last month that forced them to suspend their season for eight days.
MLB has postponed 34 games this season because of positive tests.
The Mets planned to fly to New York on Thursday night and conduct testing for the entire traveling party. Remaining in Miami were the two members of the organization who tested positive, along with those known to have had close contact with them. The team’s next scheduled game now is Saturday against the Yankees.
CAL RIPKEN JR. revealed he is cancer free after surgery in March to remove a tumor from his prostate.
Known as “The Iron Man” for his record streak of playing in 2,632 consecutive games, the Hall of Famer for the Baltimore Orioles was diagnosed with cancer in February. He wasn’t experiencing symptoms, but bloodwork results prompted a visit to a urologist. After several tests, a biopsy detected cancer.
“Got the surgery, got out, recovered,” Ripken said during a Zoom call. “All the different postanalysis said the cancer was all contained. I’m cancer free, and I can continue my normal life. I thank my lucky stars that occurred.”
Ripken, who turns 60 next week, initially decided to keep his story secret. But he figured that by sharing his experience he might encourage others to have a prostate test.
“I kind of toyed with the idea of not telling anybody about that, ever,” he said. “It feels like it was a personal issue. … It proved that if you get the diagnosis early, the outcome can be fantastic.”
Ripken became emotional when talking about the scare.
“We all know people that have had different cancers, and you wonder how it would feel if it happened to you,” he said. “I know what that feels like now.”
“One of my early reactions was to call my brother Bill (a former big league player) to make sure he was getting his regular physicals,” he added. “When you retire, that responsibility falls on you. Sometime we avoid that.”
YANKEES: New York placed reliever Zack Britton on the 10-day injured list with a strained left hamstring after he was injured in Wednesday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Britton underwent an MRI before Thursday’s afternoon game and the Yankees put him on the IL about 90 minutes before the game. Britton replaced Gerrit Cole in the seventh inning Wednesday and allowed RBI singles to Mike Brosseau and Willy Adames in the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 4-2 loss.
He winced after getting pulled from the game with two runners on base and one out in the eighth.
Britton was the Yankees’ closer and filled in nicely while Aroldis Chapman was recovering from COVID-19. Britton converted all eight save chances before moving back to his setup role when Chapman was activated Monday.
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