KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ The coronavirus has prompted a change in the Kansas City Royals' schedule.
Because of a COVID-19 infection within the Cincinnati Reds' organization, this week's two-game Royals-Reds series will not start Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium as originally planned.
Major League Baseball announced that the game has been rescheduled as part of a doubleheader Wednesday beginning at 4:05 p.m. Central Time "out of an abundance of caution and to allow for additional testing within the Cincinnati Reds' organization."
Wednesday's doubleheader will feature two seven-inning games and a 30-40 minute break between.
The Reds missed two games over the weekend after a player tested positive for the virus. The team reportedly delayed its travel from Cincinnati to Kansas City until Tuesday morning in order to give as much time for testing and contact tracing as possible.
A Reds player received a positive result Friday night and the entire team was tested last weekend in an attempt to determine whether the infection had spread throughout the team, coaching and support staff.
Outbreaks among teams have already played havoc on the truncated MLB schedule. So far, 33 games involving 13 teams have been affected by COVID-19 infections.
The Miami Marlins are currently without 17 players from its opening day roster due to an outbreak in their organization.
The St. Louis Cardinals announced a revised schedule on Aug. 14. That schedule featured 11 doubleheaders and 53 games in 44 days from mid-August to the end of the regular season.
The Royals have not announced a positive COVID-19 test result since the start of the regular season. They publicly acknowledged eight positive cases since the start of spring training 2.0 at the beginning of July.
Royals players who've acknowledged coronavirus infections this summer include star catcher Salvador Perez, pitchers Jakob Junis and Brad Keller, outfielder Hunter Dozier, first baseman Ryan O'Hearn, backup catcher Cam Gallagher, minor league pitcher Daniel Tillo and minor league catcher Nick Dini.
Dozier tested positive days before the start of the season. He rejoined the team on Aug. 9. Dozier detailed his and his wife's draining experience with the virus.
Royals manager Mike Matheny also discussed going through his own battle with the virus during the period when MLB postponed spring training camps.
MLB clubs are not required to publicly announce individual positive test results. Due to medical privacy laws, clubs are not allowed to announce positive test results unless the player has given permission.
Last week, Royals outfielder and former local high school three-sport star Bubba Starling returned to the team after a stint on the injured list after he self-reported symptoms. Starling did not test positive for COVID-19, but he spent time away from the team while ill.
League-wide testing in the monitoring phase _ not including intake testing _ through August 13 has yielded 75 positive results among 66,127 samples (0.1 percent) of players, coaches and staff members. Fifty-one of those positive tests were players and 24 were staff members. Nineteen of the 30 clubs had a positive test during the monitoring period.
