Cards-Tigers twin bill Thursday postponed

ST. LOUIS -- The Cardinals' doubleheader against the Tigers on Thursday was postponed, Major League Baseball announced Monday, as the Cardinals work to control their COVID-19 outbreak this week.

Thursday’s doubleheader at Comerica Park was supposed to be a makeup of last week’s series postponement when the Cardinals’ outbreak first began. It’s unknown yet when the series will now be rescheduled. The move to postpone the doubleheader will allow the Cardinals to focus on testing and eliminating the outbreak that has affected 17 individuals -- 10 players and seven staff members -- in the organization. The team does not know when it’ll be able to gather again this week, but the daily testing results will determine that next step for them. Players, coaches and staff are quarantining in their homes, and their only approved outing is to go to Busch Stadium for their daily COVID-19 test in a drive-through setup the team has established.

As the schedule stands, the Cardinals will play the White Sox in Chicago on Friday night. Saturday’s game against the White Sox was moved from 1:10 p.m. to 6:10 p.m. CT.

Friday will be three weeks since the Cardinals’ Opening Day and with only five games played because of the coronavirus outbreak that started almost two weeks ago. The Cardinals have had two days on the field in the past 11 days. In order to complete a full 60-game season, St. Louis would need to play 55 games in 45 days.

The Cardinals have expressed caution in getting the team back on the field to make sure the outbreak is controlled first. Players and staff haven’t gathered since Thursday, when the last workout was held. The team learned of two new positive COVID-19 cases that night and subsequently MLB postponed the Cubs series this past weekend as well as this week’s series against the Pirates.

On Sunday night, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak was hopeful that the Cardinals would receive all negative tests Monday and Tuesday, and then they could begin to make plans to resume play by the end of the week. The Cardinals and MLB are focused on controlling the outbreak first to ensure that when the Cardinals do get back on the field, they’ll be able to finish the season.

“I think from a competitive juice standpoint like where people are motivated to go, I think you’ll see that,” Mozeliak said Sunday. “But I think what we have to be careful of is, we can’t have too many more stops and starts, because then I do think you have an adverse effect on people mentally. My hope is when we do get this next green light, it’s one that we can keep moving forward with.”