NEW YORK — The second half of the Major League Baseball season was supposed to kickoff on Thursday with a single game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, but it has been postponed due to positive COVID-19 tests.
The positive tests are on the Yankees side. Pitchers Nestor Cortes and Wandy Peralta were placed on the COVID-19 injured list Thursday. Jonathan Loaisiga was also placed on the list but he had tested positive last weekend. All three players were vaccinated. There are three more pending tests still.
Major League Baseball said the postponement was to allow for more testing and contact tracing.
According to the Associated Press, players were on the field taking batting practice this afternoon when the Yankees organization asked media to leave the field while the team conducted COVID-19 testing.
The Yankees are among major league teams that have reached the 85% vaccination rate, a threshold teams needed to get to in order to lessen COVID-19-related protocols.
It's unknown at this time if the Yankees/Red Sox series will start on Friday.
The rest of the league is set to return to action on Friday, following this week's All-Star Break.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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