Cards look to resume play Saturday in Chicago; Carlson being called up

Further COVID-19 testing permitting and Major League Baseball approving, the St. Louis Cardinals will resume play in Chicago against the White Sox on Saturday afternoon.

President of baseball operations John Mozeliak announced the plan for upcoming days Thursday night. He said MLB is expected to approve the schedule changes Friday.

Mozeliak also announced several personnel moves, including the call-up of top prospect Dylan Carlson from the team’s alternate training site in Springfield, the addition of Jose Oquendo as third base coach and the placement of pitcher Austin Gomber on the COVID-19 injured list. Gomber has not tested positive, Mozeliak said, but has been exposed to someone who did.

A Friday night game against the White Sox — a rescheduling of the canceled Field of Dreams game — would be pushed to Saturday as part of a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. The Cardinals would complete their series with the White Sox as scheduled Sunday afternoon.

The Cardinals are scheduled to stay in Chicago to play the Cubs, whom they would face five times over three days. Doubleheaders would be scheduled Monday and Wednesday, sandwiching a single game Tuesday.

A home series against the Reds at Busch Stadium follows on Aug. 20-24.

The Cardinals have not played since July 29 in the wake of 17 positive tests for COVID-19 — 10 players and seven staff. Entire series against the Brewers, Tigers, Cubs and Pirates have been postponed over the last two weeks while the team tried to put together a series of consecutive days without positive test results.