NEW YORK — The Yankees’ post-All-Star break opener against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night was postponed because of positive COVID-19 tests among vaccinated New York pitchers Jonathan Loaisiga, Nestor Cortes Jr. and Wandy Peralta.
“It’s a fluid situation that could spread. It has spread to some degree,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. “We have three positives and we have three pending that we’ve had rapid tests on. … We’ll wait now for the lab tests to come back, which I’m assuming is going to be positive, as well. So that would increase our number to six, but we’re not at six yet. We’re at three confirmed.”
Loaisiga went on the COVID-19 injured list Saturday, when the Yankees were in Houston, and he did not travel home with the team Sunday. Cortes and Peralta went on the COVID-19 IL on Thursday.
Cashman said all three were fully vaccinated, as are most of the players on the team. Among the three, two received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and the other was either Pfizer or Moderna, according to Cashman.
“Those players are doing well thus far,” he said. “And that would speak again to the belief that those vaccinations are working and ultimately they’re to protect us from severe illness and/or death.”
The three players awaiting lab results are in quarantine. Cashman would not say whether they include the Yankees’ All-Stars who were in Denver: Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Aroldis Chapman.
MLB was conducting contact tracing under its protocols.
“The vaccines that we encourage everybody to get guarantee not getting hospitalized and not getting death coming from COVID, which is important, but it doesn’t prevent you from contracting COVID,” Cashman said. “It just obviously protects you from the severe worst-case scenario effects from COVID.”
Cashman said Major League Baseball had not yet decided whether to postpone Friday’s second scheduled game of the four-game series.
“The last year, year and a half, has kind of in some ways kind of prepared you for this kind of stuff,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Certainly disappointing and frustrating.”
This was the eighth COVID-related postponement this season but the first in nearly three months. Also put off were a three-game series that had the New York Mets at Washington from April 1-4, and Atlanta’s game at the Nationals on April 5, two Minnesota at Los Angeles Angels games on April 17-18 and a Twins at Oakland game on April 19.
There were 45 regular-season games postponed for virus-related reasons during last year’s pandemic-shortened season but just two were not made up, between St. Louis and Detroit.
New York, fourth in the AL East at a disappointing 46-43, was among the first MLB teams to reach the 85% vaccination threshold that triggers a lessening of coronavirus protocols such as dropping mask use in dugouts and bullpens.
MLB said in its last announcement June 25 that 23 of it 30 teams had reached 85% vaccinations among tier 1 individuals such as players and on-field staff. The Red Sox were not among them.
Despite all those vaccinations, the Yankees had more than a half-dozen positive COVID tests in May involving staff, including pitching coach Matt Blake, third base coach Phil Nevin and first base coach Reggie Willits. Nevin, despite being vaccinated, became seriously ill with a kidney infection that kept him away from the team for more than three weeks.
No Yankees players tested positive then, though shortstop Gleyber Torres had a false positive, according to Boone.
New York players were on the field taking early batting practice about 3 1/2 hours before the scheduled start Thursday when the Yankees asked media to leave the field while the team conducted COVID testing.
Boston, whose 55-36 record matched Houston for best in the AL, came onto the field as the postponment was announced, then took batting practice until 6 p.m.
MOVING UP
Red Sox: Boston is bringing up OF Jarren Duran and RHP Tanner Houck. Duran, a 24-year-old who hit .368 for the U.S. in Olympic qualifying, was in the lineup for a major league debut, playing center and batting seventh. Houck, who pitched in three game for the Red Sox in April, will be in the bullpen at first and likely will start Wednesday against Toronto in Buffalo. Duran hit .270 with 15 homers and 32 RBIs in 189 at-bats at Triple-A Worcester. Coach Bruce Crabbe called him into coach Billy McMillon’s office after Wednesday’s game. “They opened up a spot on the Olympic roster for you,” Duran recalled Crabbe saying. “I was like: `Oh, awesome, cool.’ And then he goes: `Oh, but you could actually go to the big leagues if you want to do that. That could be a side job for you.”’ His mother, father, brother, girlfriend and two uncles were in New York for his debut.
Yankees: OF Trey Amburgey’s contract was selected from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The 26-year-old right-handed hitter was batting .312 with seven homers and 35 RBIs in 141 at-bats. C Rob Brantly and INF Hoy Jun Park were scratched from the RailRiders’ lineup Thursday night, a sign they may join the Yankees on Friday.
NUMBERS GAME
New York 2B Rougned Odor has switched to No. 12 from No. 18.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Red Sox: LHP Chris Sale pitched in a game for the first time since Tommy John surgery on March 30, 2020, throwing 39 pitches over three scoreless innings for the FCL Red Sox at the FCL Orioles Orange. The 32-year-old left-hander allowed four hits and struck out five. Sale threw at up to 97 mph, according to manager Alex Cora, and likely will start Tuesday for Double-A Portland.
Yankees: LHP Zack Britton was activated from the injured list after recovering from a strained left hamstring that had sidelined him since June 25.
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout on Friday.
Dermott, a 27-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., produced two goals, five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Arizona Coyotes last season.
The six-foot, 202-pound blueliner has also played for the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto drafted him in the second round, 34th overall, of the 2015 NHL draft.
Over seven NHL seasons, Dermott has 16 goals and 46 assists in 329 games while averaging 16:03 in ice time.
Before the NHL, Dermott played two seasons with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. The team was coached by current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, led the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan vote her first year on the ballot — an important part to possible selection to the hall’s next class.
The organization released the voting results on Friday. American doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan finished second with Canada’s Daniel Nestor third.
The Hall of Fame said tens of thousands of fans from 120 countries cast ballots. Fan voting is one of two steps in the hall’s selection process. The second is an official group of journalists, historians, and Hall of Famers from the sport who vote on the ballot for the hall’s class of 2025.
“I am incredibly grateful to the fans all around the world who supported me during the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan votes,” Sharapova said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to be considered for the Hall of Fame, and having the fans’ support makes it all the more special.”
Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach No. 1 in the world. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. She also won the French Open twice, in 2012 and 2014.
Sharapova was also part of Russia’s championship Fed Cup team in 2008 and won a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012.
To make the hall, candidates must receive 75% or higher on combined results of the official voting group and additional percentage from the fan vote. Sharapova will have an additional three percentage points from winning the fan vote.
The Bryans, who won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, will have two additional percentage points and Nestor, who won eight Grand Slam doubles titles, will get one extra percentage point.
The hall’s next class will be announced late next month.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed in Carneys Point, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding.
The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle. At a virtual court hearing Friday, a judge ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.
“’You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,’” his wife told Higgins when he called her from jail after his arrest, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The defense described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen before the crash.
“He’s an empathetic individual and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” said defense lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a good person and he made a horrible decision that night.”
Higgins told police he had five or six beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint. He also failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said. A prosecutor on Friday said he had been drinking at home after finishing a work call at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting conversation with his mother about a family matter.
He then had a two-hour phone call with a friend while he drove around in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn said. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going just above the 50 mph speed limit, sometimes tailgating, the female driver told police.
When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and veered left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreas, the two other drivers told police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” said Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio, who said Higgins’ admitted “impatience” caused two deaths.
Higgins faces up to 20 years, a sentence that the judge said made him a flight risk.
Higgins has a master’s degree, works in finance for an addiction treatment company, and served in combat in Iraq, his lawyers said. However, his wife said he had been drinking regularly since working from home, Flynn said.
Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” played 10 full seasons in the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He played his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as attached at the hip throughout their lives. Both women are expecting, and both gave moving eulogies at the double funeral on Monday.
