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Here’s what the Red Sox said about Xander Bogaerts testing positive for COVID-19
"It’s the invisible enemy. It sucks."
Tuesday’s game featured a perfect encapsulation of the past month for the Red Sox — Xander Bogaerts drove in a run in the first inning to grab an early lead, then was forced to leave after he took the field due to a positive COVID test.
Bogaerts’ test result — which was revealed immediately after the Red Sox gave up six runs in the third inning — prompted NESN broadcaster Dennis Eckersley to call the game “a real low moment” in the season.
Bogaerts is the latest Red Sox player to test positive in an outbreak that continues to claim players — Kiké Hernández, Christian Arroyo, Martín Pérez, Matt Barnes, Josh Taylor and Hirokazu Sawamura are all on the COVID-IL, along with several Red Sox coaches.
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“Like I said yesterday, they’re not going to stop the tournament for the Red Sox,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We know that. So we’ve got to figure this out, show up tomorrow, play good baseball, do it the next day and then go home and see where we’re at.”
The Red Sox received the results of the test after the game started — a problem Cora attributed to lab results.
“It was weird, when that came in, I was like ‘Oh gosh,'” Cora said. “But we’ve got to keep going.”
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Kyle Schwarber said the team is mostly concerned with their teammates’ health.
“This is no joke, it’s nothing to not take seriously, and you just hope that it’s a light case, that they aren’t feeling it super hard and that they recover quickly,” Schwarber said. “That’s kind of the biggest thing that’s on everyone’s mind, is the well-being of all the guys. It’s the invisible enemy, it sucks, but we have to keep moving forward and keep putting our best foot forward.”
The Red Sox have not yet achieved the MLB’s goal of 85-percent vaccinations.
Both Schwarber and Cora deferred any questions about the MLB postponing games as the positive test results continue to mount.
“I don’t know, I think that’s above my pay grade,” Schwarber said. “Whatever tomorrow brings is what tomorrow brings.”
But as the Red Sox try to maintain their playoff slot, they will miss their depth — and they will certainly miss Bogaerts, who Cora called “one of the best, if not the best, shortstop in the league.”
“We’ll definitely miss his presence, and we’re all going to have to step up missing him and all the other guys down right now,” Schwarber said. “We’ve got to do it. That’s the biggest thing. We have to take it upon ourselves to really pick each other up and care of these guys. They are going to be in our thoughts and everything, but like I said, we have to be able to step up for these guys while they are gone.”
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