6:23PM: Tonight’s game between the Marlins and Mets will not be played. As relayed by several reporters, players on both teams took part in a powerful symbolic moment, with Mets players taking their usual positions in the field and the other Mets and Marlins players standing outside their dugouts. After a 42-second moment of silence in honor of Jackie Robinson, all players tipped and waved their caps at one another before departing the field, with a Black Lives Matter t-shirt left atop home plate.
5:41PM: The game between the Orioles and Rays will also not be played. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter site) was among those to note the lack of normal pregame activity between the two clubs, and equipment being packed up from both dugouts.
5:06PM: Tonight’s game between the Rockies and Diamondbacks has also been postponed, as per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter link).
3:51PM: Players on the Nationals and Phillies collectively decided to postpone tonight’s game, as per a Phillies media release.
3:21PM: The Red Sox have decided not to play their game against the Blue Jays tonight, Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe reports (via Twitter).
3:04PM: Tonight’s game between the Twins and Tigers will also be postponed, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). Twins and Tigers players each voted against playing the game, as respectively reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and MLB.com’s Jason Beck.
1:42PM: Phillies players have voted against playing their scheduled game versus the Nationals tonight, Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports (via Twitter). ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets that the Rangers/Athletics game will also be postponed tonight. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweeted shortly prior that the A’s were giving strong consideration to opting not to play. Passan tweeted earlier that Red Sox players were also considering a decision not to play against the Blue Jays.
Today’s decisions follow several clubs who declined to play yesterday in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In total, three MLB games — Brewers/Reds, Mariners/Padres and Dodgers/Giants were postponed yesterday. All three are expected to be made up in doubleheaders today.
Last night, Major League Baseball issued the following statement in response to teams’ decisions to protest:
“Given the pain in the communities of Wisconsin and beyond following the shooting of Jacob Blake, we respect the decisions of a number of players not to play tonight. MLB remains united for change in our society & we will be allies in the fight to end racism and injustice.”
Similar protests were made in the NBA, where the scheduled postseason games Wednesday and Thursday were all postponed. The current expectation is for the NBA to resume play Saturday (link via HoopsRumors).
