Phillies not cleared to play Friday amid coronavirus concerns
The Philadelphia Phillies will have to wait at least one extra day to restart their 2020 pandemic-shortened campaign that's only made it through three games as of July 29.
MLB shut down both the Phillies and Miami Marlins after Philadelphia was exposed to the Miami coronavirus outbreak due to hosting the Marlins last weekend. Miami is off through at least the coming weekend, while the Phillies were hoping to return to play on Friday.
Philadelphia won't receive that wish.
On Wednesday, MLB insider Ken Rosenthal tweeted that the Phillies won't be cleared to play before Saturday at the earliest.
As noted by ESPN's Jeff Passan, the Phillies have returned zero positive coronavirus test results since the series against the Marlins.
The Athletic's Jayson Stark reported the Phillies should be good to go as long as nobody tests positive for the virus by Saturday.
This goes with the timeline mentioned by epidemiologist Dr. Zachary Binney on Monday's "Starkville" podcast when he explained that the Marlins and Phillies should be shut down for at least five days. MLB could, however, sit Philadelphia until Sunday, at the earliest, as a precautionary measure so the league and club can complete a final round of testing.
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