ANAHEIM, California. The Twins ’games against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night and Sunday have been postponed due to Minnesota’s COVID-19 problems, including at least four positive tests last week.
Kyle Garlick, another unnamed Twins player and team staff member tested positive the two days before the postponements, manager Rocco Baldelli said on Saturday. Tour Andrelton Simmons had no longer made the trip to Anaheim after testing positive earlier in the week and had not been around the team since Tuesday.
“There’s not a person in our group who isn’t frustrated,” Baldelli said. “Does everyone have this general frustration just having to deal with it in a broader sense? Absolutely. And there’s likely to be people who are frustrated by some specific aspects.”
Saturday’s game was “postponed to allow testing and follow-up contacts with members of the Twins organization,” the league said in a statement.
The twins are undergoing further testing this weekend in Anaheim and do not know when they will be allowed to play again. On Saturday they have not had any more positive tests from another round, but Baldelli knows this could be a false hope.
“It’s a tough time and we all know the deadlines for these things,” Baldelli said. “If someone had been exposed, [the results] they are not necessarily immediate. We will return to the hotel and wait for further instructions. “
Garlick played when Minnesota lost 10-3 to the Angels Friday night. Minnesota’s next scheduled game will be Monday night at Oakland Athletics.
Some Twins members isolated themselves at the team’s hotel Friday, according to Baldelli, who said he himself took a false positive test Thursday morning.
Some of the infected twins had “much minor symptoms … only mild fatigue, headache, scratched throat, all of that,” Baldelli said.
“Things won’t be easy for that,” Baldelli said. “In addition to everything we have gone through, we will have a lot of challenges, and we will be in favor of achieving it and we will do our best. This is the unfortunate reality that we live in, but we will move forward. the best we can “.
The twins pushed vaccination across the organization when they returned from spring training in Florida nearly three weeks ago. This push did not include Simmons, who chose not to be vaccinated.
Baldelli said the team was “close to where we wanted to be, but not enough,” in terms of vaccinating most of its employees. He believes about 80% of the team has received two doses of vaccine, but many employees are not out the window two weeks after the second dose to be considered fully vaccinated.
Last year, 45 games of the regular season were postponed for virus-related reasons, but only two – including the St. Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers – were not compensated.
The twins are not expected to visit Angel Stadium again this season and the Angels will visit Minnesota for four games from July 22-25.