HOUSTON – The Houston Astros will not play the Oakland A’s Sunday as their scheduled game at Minute Maid Park was postponed after a member of the Oakland Athletics’ organization tested positive for COVID-19, according to a release from Major League Baseball.
The finale of the A’s three-game series at Minute Maid Park was called off less than four hours before it was scheduled to start.
The A’s said the team conducted testing and contact tracing for the entire traveling party Sunday morning and would self-isolate in Houston with recommended safety precautions in place.
The Astros beat the Athletics 6-3 on Saturday night for a doubleheader sweep. They won the first game 4-2. The doubleheader was scheduled after the A’s and Astros decided not to play Friday night to raise awareness of racial inequality in the wake of the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Wisconsin.
COVID-19 testing has now postponed 38 games. All 30 major league teams played Saturday the same day for the first time since July 26.
MLB’s plan to play a pandemic-shortened 60-game regular season has been interrupted by positive coronavirus tests, protests over racial injustice, a hurricane and rain — and that’s just in the past week.
The Astros and Angels moved up Thursday’s game to Tuesday ahead of Hurricane Laura, which made landfall in Louisiana on Thursday morning. Houston’s game on Wednesday against the Angels was postponed.
Read the release in its entirety below:
Following a positive test for COVID-19 in the Oakland Athletics’ organization, today’s scheduled game between the A’s and the host Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park has been postponed out of an abundance of caution and to allow for additional testing and contact tracing to be conducted. Major League Baseball will continue to provide updates as necessary.