With COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County already spiking amongst Dodgers fans, a key member of the team was deemed to be positive for the coronavirus in the middle of the team winning the World Series on Tuesday night.
Justin Turner was pulled from LA’s 3-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays after the seventh inning after registering Major League Baseball’s first positive COVID-19 test in 59 days.
The 35-year-old’s Monday sample was deemed to be inconclusive but the result was confirmed after his Tuesday pregame sample came back positive in the sixth inning, according to The Associated Press.
Despite being pulled from the game and being asked to remain in isolation by league security personnel and Dodgers officials, Turner was adamant about wanting to join the celebration after LA won Game 6 and returned to the field with his teammates.
In a scene that looked downright irresponsible, Turner posed with teammates, spoke closely with his wife Kourtney and sat for a team photo with manager Dave Roberts, a cancer survivor, to his immediate right.
“It was obviously a really unfortunate endpoint of this incredible series and definitely affected some of the joy of winning just because of what JT has meant to us,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. said after the game. “Now the subsequent tests we’re going to take are really important.”
Those tests and contact tracing will be conducted in the days ahead, but the obvious concern is that the post-game celebration might amount to a super-spreader event, according to The Athletic. Should anyone else get sick, the optics of Turner being allowed to return to the field without anyone in the organization stopping him will go from bad to worse.
“Thanks to everyone reaching out,” Turner posted on Twitter after the game.”I feel great, no symptoms at all. Just experienced every emotion you can possibly imagine. Can’t believe I couldn’t be out there to celebrate with my guys! So proud of this team & unbelievably happy for the City of LA.”
Turner hit .364 with a pair of home runs in the World Series and also played stellar defense. Hopefully, now his immune system can do the same thing.
It is irrelevant now, but had Tampa been able to overcome manager Kevin Cash’s mismanagement of his starting pitcher, it would have been interesting to see if Game 7 would have been played as scheduled tonight given Turner’s positive test.
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