With the Giants-Padres game at Petco Park in San Diego postponed Friday night, it was a familiar feeling for the A’s.
Sources confirmed to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic that a Giants player tested positive for coronavirus which resulted in the postponement. MLB announced Saturday’s game also was postponed “out of an abundance of caution and to allow for additional testing and contact tracing to be conducted.”
The A’s are fresh off a week of being self-quarantined following pitcher Daniel Mengden's positive coronavirus test while the team was in Texas. It was assured that Mengden, or any other members of the A’s staff, didn’t break MLB protocols and the pitcher did not have any symptoms.
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Well, if it is anything as it was with how MLB handled the A’s, it could be a long wait for the Giants before they take the field again.
The A’s game on Aug. 30 against the Houston Astros had been postponed, and the team wouldn’t play again until Sept. 4. That was out of an abundance of caution, just as MLB said regarding the Giants’ game against the Padres on Saturday.
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Despite the A’s continuously testing negative for coronavirus, they had to skip the entire series against the Seattle Mariners. So, it’s possible more than just the two Giants games are postponed.
The Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals also had similar situations with positive tests that added several doubleheaders to their schedule.
The A’s currently are in the middle of a four-game series in three days against the Texas Rangers. However, Saturday's makeup game was due to the A’s boycotting a game on Aug. 27 in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting. Blake, a 29-year-old man, was shot seven times by police in Kenosha, Wis. on Aug. 23.
As for the Giants and Padres, with the regular season winding down, there aren't many days left to try and make up two or three games. If the entire three-game series is postponed, MLB will have to do schedule gymnastics to make up all three games.
With the Giants pushing for an NL playoff spot, potentially playing three or more doubleheaders over the final two weeks of the season isn't ideal. But in the 2020 season is anything but ideal, so teams just have to deal with the cards they are dealt.