HOUSTON, TX—On Sunday, August 30, Major League Baseball (MLB) postponed the series finale between the Oakland Athletics (A’s) and the Houston Astros after learning that a member of the A’s organization tested positive for COVID-19. While the A’s had games postponed on Thursday and Friday due to protests over Jacob Blake’s shooting. Sunday’s game marked their first game this year cancelled due to coronavirus.
The A’s learned about the positive test at 10 p.m. on Saturday after losing both games during a doubleheader against the Astros earlier in the day. The test result came from the team’s latest round of testing on Friday and is the first positive test in the A’s organization since the 2020 season started. A’s General Manger David Forst did not reveal whether the person who tested positive was a player or staff member of the team.
On Sunday morning, the team conducted testing and contact tracing for their entire traveling party, and they will stay at their team hotel in Houston Sunday night with proper safety precautions in place. They are expecting results from the tests by Monday.
“Anything beyond today, we’re not going to speculate on. Ultimately, we need to see if this is an isolated infection or a larger issue. The only way to do that is to be patient and make sure everybody isolates at the hotel today. We’ll wait until tomorrow to figure out tomorrow,” said Forst in an initial news release from the A’s.
Forst indicated that it is too soon to determine whether the A’s will be able to play their next series, a three game set against the Mariners scheduled to start on Tuesday. They do not yet know when the teams will play today’s postponed game.
The A’s organization will remain in contact with MLB to determine how and when to return to play as soon as it is safe to do so.
“We don’t know what we’re facing from a baseball standpoint as far as how long we’re going to be out or when we’ll play next,” said Forst. “We’ve got a resilient group of guys who have taken this seriously all along and understand the sacrifices that they are making to play. I have confidence that we’ll get through this and get back to playing baseball, when it is appropriate.”
