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Will this be the final year of the MLB 10-team playoff format?
Sports Seriously: Bob Nightengale discusses MLB plans for an expanded playoff pitch that could begin as early as next season.
UNITED STATES TODAY
Thanks in large part to vaccinations, Major League Baseball has avoided significant disruption from COVID-19 this season.
Still, the increase in the number of cases nationwide – largely attributed to the Delta variant – plagued two playoff contenders during their most crucial weeks.
The Boston Red Sox withdrew All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts from the second inning of their game in Tampa Bay after testing positive for COVID-19 – their sixth player to test positive in the past week and the seventh directed to the wounded list.
Bogaerts had already contributed to a single RBI in the match before manager Alex Cora signaled him to leave the match.
The San Francisco Giants placed their next two scheduled starting pitchers – Alex Wood and Johnny Cueto – on the COVID-19 injured list on Monday just as they begin a difficult and crucial seven-game streak against the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Wood has tested positive for COVID-19, the team confirmed, and is symptomatic. His loss forced the Giants – who have led the NHL since April 30 – to play in a bullpen game on Monday against the Brewers, and Wood will also miss a scheduled start on Saturday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. , second.
Cueto felt ill but had not tested positive, and Tuesday was cleared for his scheduled departure.
Seven Giants relievers fared admirably in a 3-1 loss to the Brewers on Monday, but that bare-handed effort will take its toll during this week. The Dodgers are only a game and a half behind the Giants.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox’s tenuous grip on an American League wildcard spot took a hit after five players – including high-value utility Kiké Hernández – and two coaches tested positive for COVID -19 in recent days. The 4.4 wins over the replacement of Hernández leads the Red Sox; Starting pitcher Martín Perez, relief pitchers Matt Barnes and Hirokazu Sawamura and infielder Christian Arroyo have also tested positive, while reliever Josh Taylor has been placed on COVID-19 IL after being identified as a close contact of a positive case.
The exhausted Red Sox lost Game 1 of a four-game series at No. 1 at Tampa Bay and are now nine games behind the Rays. While a series win might have fueled the idea of fighting for the division title, the Red Sox’s biggest concern is maintaining the No. 2 position for the wilds.
Heading into Tuesday night’s game, their lead over Oakland is reduced to two games, with Toronto and Seattle 4 1/2 games back and the Blue Jays enjoying a very favorable schedule over the past month.
The Giants were among the first teams to achieve an 85% vaccination rate, allowing their players and other Level 1 staff to benefit from relaxed COVID-19 protocols under MLB leadership. The Red Sox are one of seven teams that failed to hit the 85% vaccinated mark, a fact that frustrated Cora, but Hernández was among the team’s vaccinated players and suffered a groundbreaking case.
He remains in quarantine in Cleveland and will miss the entire Rays series and possibly this weekend’s series at Fenway Park against Cleveland. Bogaerts’ schedule will definitely put him on the sidelines throughout the weekend and possibly for next week’s three-game rematch with the Rays at Fenway Park.
The delta variant surge has resulted in 4 million new cases of COVID-19 in the past 28 days, according to Johns Hopkins University, and more than a million last week, according to NBC News.
“It’s not easy,” Cora told reporters after Monday’s 6-1 loss at Tropicana Field. “But it’s not just happening here, but all over the world. This is how I see it. And I’m just glad people who are positive feel good.
Only nine games have been postponed this season due to COVID-19 absences, including seven in April, according to MLB. This contrasts with the 45 postponements from just 900 games in the 60-game 2020 season, which started in July and was staged before vaccines were approved for the general public.
Today, 86.4% of Level 1 staff in majors are vaccinated, according to the MLB, and some holdouts have chosen to be vaccinated in recent weeks.
Still, the delta variant has proven to be disruptive, and the slightly less effective Johnson & Johnson vaccine – popular with athletes because of its unique regimen – may show its vulnerabilities. The New York Yankees, who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine widely in April, experienced COVID-19 outbreaks of six and nine people in May and July, the latter of which resulted in a postponement of one game.
Cora and Kapler have both been strong supporters of vaccination; with outbreaks on their respective clubs, both wore dugout masks on Monday night.
This is perhaps the most insignificant inconvenience as they navigate the final five weeks of the season. In their search for fresh weapons, the Giant claimed left-hander Jose Quintana on waivers of the Angels. Quintana’s 6.75 ERA would be the worst in the major leagues if he had pitched enough innings to qualify.
But it could soon be put into service as an opener or bulk lifter. The Giants and Red Sox will get some relief on Tuesday, when the rosters drop from 26 to 28.
The Giants would much rather have Wood, whose 10-4 record, 4.08 ERA and ability to dive deep into games have been a big boon this year.
Instead, they can sacrifice the head of the division for a week when the pandemic has made its debut.
“I think that’s a real concern,” Kapler told reporters. “This in no way makes us unique. I know a lot of clubs have faced the virus and dealt with it successfully. We’re just going to do our best under the circumstances, and we’ve done a really good job this season of adaptation and adjustment. “
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