Boston still leads the wild-card race, but the team's postseason hopes just took a hit.
The Red Sox's COVID-19 outbreak continued Friday as Chris Sale became the 10th player since Aug. 27 to test positive for the illness, according to MassLive.com's Chris Cotillo.
Sale will not pitch Sunday against the White Sox. Boston, who is nine games back of the Rays in the AL East, currently leads the AL wild-card race, but several teams are within two games of the Red Sox.
There are still eight other players on the COVID-19 injured list, including Xander Bogaerts and starter Nick Pivetta, and two coaches were impacted by the outbreak.
The news comes a day after outfielder Hunter Renfroe claimed that MLB told the Red Sox to stop testing for COVID-19 as the club faced a rapid outbreak. However, the franchise maintained that they "have been following MLB’s COVID-19 protocols all season long." Meanwhile, an MLB spokesperson said to The Boston Globe the outfielder is "completely wrong and inaccurate."
"We've been going through a lot of things with COVID," Renfroe told Lou Merloni and Christian Fauria on WEEI radio, "and MLB has basically told us to stop testing and just treat the symptoms. We're like, 'No. We're gonna figure out what's going on and try to keep this thing under control.' "
Sale, a seven-time All-Star, missed the 2020 season due to recovering from Tommy John surgery. Since rejoining the rotation, the 32-year-old has gone 3–0 with a 2.52 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 25 innings.
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