Oakland A’s series against Mariners postponed, rescheduled as doubleheaders

The Oakland A’s three-game series against the Seattle Mariners has been officially postponed, the team announced on Tuesday. The soonest they might return to action would be Friday at home against the San Diego Padres.

The A’s have been sitting out since Sunday, when they announced a positive coronavirus test among their traveling team and staff. They missed the finale of their series against the Houston Astros that afternoon and were soon ruled out of the Tue/Wed Mariners games, and now they’re pushing back the Thursday meeting as well.

Fortunately, all signs currently point toward a return sooner than later. The team received another full slate of negatives in their second round of follow-up testing, taken Monday, reports Susan Slusser of the S.F. Chronicle. The Thursday game is being postponed “out of an abundance of caution to allow for continued testing and contact tracing,” per a club press release.

The Mariners games will all be made up as doubleheaders. Both teams had an off-day on Sept. 14, so the A’s will go to Seattle for a twin-bill to take care of two of them. Then, when they meet again at the Coliseum at the end of the season, they’ll add an extra contest to their regularly scheduled Sept. 26 matchup and turn that day into a doubleheader — although, presumably the makeup will still be played as a Mariners home game, with Seattle batting last.

The Sept. 14 double-dip will make for a particularly hectic timetable that week, as there’s already a makeup doubleheader scheduled for Sept. 12 against the Texas Rangers. At one point, they’ll play six games in four days in three cities, with the final stop adding the extra factor of being at extremely high elevation.

• 9/12: @ Texas, doubleheader
• 9/13: @ Texas
• 9/14: @ Seattle, doubleheader
• 9/15: @ Colorado

There’s still the chance of yet another doubleheader before all of that, as well. After Oakland’s three games against the Padres this weekend, they host the Astros for four from Mon-Thu (Sept. 7-10), which would offer a prime chance to make up the postponement from last Sunday.

The A’s are getting some extra time off this week, so perhaps that will help them withstand such a demanding September slate. However, the most impactful result might be the increase in seven-inning games, which are unfavorable for a team whose strengths include its deep bullpen and its ability to feast on opposing relievers in the middle/late innings. You can’t come back in the 9th if there isn’t a 9th at all.

But seven-inning games are better than no games at all, and the important part is that so far nobody else is sick. Hopefully that continues and the A’s are healthy and able to get back to business on Friday.