The Washington Nationals’ home opener against the New York Mets, scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed due to COVID-19 issues, Major League Baseball said.
The decision was made a day after the Nationals said one of their players tested positive for COVID-19, while four others and a staff member were in quarantine following contact tracing.
“We’re unable to disclose any additional information about who tested positive,” Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo said in a report on the team’s website.
“But we are following MLB protocols and CDC protocols and working closely with the league to determine our next steps. There’ll be a lot of balls in the air until then.”
MLB said that out of an abundance of caution, the game will be not be made up on Friday. The two teams currently are still scheduled to play on Saturday and Sunday.
Washington was one of 15 teams scheduled to play their home opener on Thursday, with each club filling different portions of their stadiums’ capacity. The Nationals plan to allow 5,000 fans, or about 12% capacity, into their ballpark.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, no fans were allowed to attend MLB games last season until late in the play-offs.
Last year’s truncated MLB season was roiled early by several postponements related to COVID-19 and the Miami Marlins were shut down for a week in a bid to contain an outbreak among their players.
