Ahead of the Miami Marlins’ game Sunday against the Philadelphia Phillies, the team found out that starting pitcher Jose Urena would not be available to play due to testing positive for COVID-19, but the players decided in a group chat to play the game anyway. Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas went on to say in a video call with reporters the following “We made the decision that we’re going to continue to do this and we’re going to continue to be responsible and just play the game as hard as we can”  while The Marlins went on to win the game 11-6.

As of today, 4 more members of the Miami Marlins have tested positive for COVID-19 after the latest round of testing, adding to the 11 Marlins players and 2 coaches testing positive. The Marlins have had 17 people test positive in the past 5 days which brings the only question in mind.

Why did the Miami Marlins play? After the game, Marlins manager Don Mattingly said “We’re taking risks every day. Every day we’re taking risks so that’s what the players all around the league are doing. You know you travel all the time. … You’re in planes, you’re in buses, you’re in different hotels. It’s a risk that we take… We’re going to have to set ourselves up to have to deal with a lot and different scenarios. So we’re getting tested early, hopefully we’re not getting tested later. Hopefully, we can pass this test.”

This domino effect caused 3 games to be postponed as a result of the positive cases. The teams affected in this were the New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Nationasl and Philadelphia Phillies. The Marlins’ outbreak was the talk of baseball…

A majority of Washington Nationals players have voted against traveling to Miami for this weekend’s three-game series against the Marlins, but the decision on whether the games are played, will be decided by Major League Baseball, not the Nationals.