The Marlins won the game, 11-6. After the game, in a video call with journalists, Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas said Sunday that the players had decided to play the game after a group conversation.
“We made the decision that we are going to continue to do this and we are going to continue to be responsible and just play the game as hard as we can,” Rojas said.
Three games were postponed as a result of the positive cases. The Marlins ‘home opener against the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees’ game in the Philadelphia Phillies, both scheduled for Monday night, have been postponed, MLB said. In an interview on MLB Network, Manfred said the Marlins will also not play their game Tuesday in Miami.
A reporter followed up with Rojas on Sunday, asking if in that group conversation there was a discussion on Sunday morning about maybe they shouldn’t be playing that day.
“That was never the mindset,” replied Rojas. “We knew this could happen at some point. We came to the stadium and we were ready to play. It was never a thought that we were not going to play.”
After the game, Marlins manager Don Mattingly was asked if consideration had been given at all on Sunday morning not to play the game due to the situation. The reporter who asked the question made no reference to positive Covid-19 evidence.
“You never really considered not playing from my point of view,” Mattingly said. “We are taking risks every day. Every day we are taking risks, so that’s what players across the league are doing. You know you travel all the time. You know it started with this road trip, you’re traveling.” You are on planes, you are on buses, you are in different hotels. It’s a risk that we take and I think we have to, I’m going back to Michael Hill, who told us from the beginning that we will have to be adjustable. We will have to be flexible. We will have to be patient. We will have to prepare ourselves to deal with many different scenarios. So we are testing early, hopefully we won’t be testing later. Hopefully, we can pass this test. “
Mattingly, who acknowledged Sunday that the team planned to leave Philadelphia on Monday morning instead of Sunday, was asked why not playing was not a consideration.
“If you looked at the stages, we could have played it at another time of the year,” Mattingly said. “You know, and our guys make the decision, right? And maybe it was an argument, but the conclusion they came to was that we took risks every day. I think it was more about the flight and a little bit to see where we are before. to fly “.
Other sports leagues are reopening with their teams in so-called “bubbles” to try to limit interactions with the outside world.
The WNBA kicked off its season on Saturday at the IMG Academy in Florida, the NBA is slated to restart its season later this week in a bubble at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, and the NHL plans to restart with double bubbles in Toronto and Edmonton In Utah, the NWSL Challenge Cup concluded on Sunday, with the Houston Dash winning the title.
CNN’s Amir Vera, Steve Almasy, Wayne Sterling and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.
.
