NEW YORK — The Yankees returned to the Bronx Thursday and got hit with a cold splash of reality that we are still living through a pandemic. The Yankees' scheduled game against the Red Sox was postponed because of COVID-19 issues with the Yankees, sources confirmed.
In the hours before they were scheduled to open the second half of the season against the Red Sox, the Yankees not only revealed they had two more players added to the COVID-19 injury list, but they did not have batting practice and asked reporters to voluntarily leave the field for their own safety.
The team at the time would not speculate on the status of the game.
Hours before Thursday night’s game was to start, the Yankees announced that pitchers Nestor Cortes and Wandy Peralta were being added to the COVID-19 IL. On Saturday, the Yankees announced that pitcher Jonathan Loaisiga had been added to the COVID-19 IL and was going through protocols.
Players were being tested for the coronavirus as they were returning from the All-Star break on Thursday. The Yankees have reached the 85% vaccination rate, which MLB deemed the threshold for teams to loosen their COVID-19 protocols. Thursday afternoon, however, team personnel were back to wearing masks.
While the majority of the Yankees traveling party is vaccinated, they have already had one breakthrough case this season. In May, the Yankees had 11 members of the traveling party, all of whom were vaccinated, test positive for COVID-19. Breakthrough cases are considered rare by the Centers for Disease Control, which also point out that vaccinated patients generally have minimal or no symptoms.
Gleyber Torres was the only player affected in May along with three coaches and other traveling staff. Third base coach Phil Nevin was out for a month as the virus led to a staph infection in his blood.
