Ian Kennedy closes out Diamondbacks' win over Cardinals, criticizes MLB COVID policy
ST. LOUIS — With a lead in the ninth inning, right-hander Ian Kennedy took the mound and retired all three batters he faced, closing out the Diamondbacks’ 6-2 win on Friday night over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Kennedy was happy to handle the ninth. He just wishes his services hadn’t been needed.
Closer Mark Melancon is in St. Louis, staying with his teammates at a hotel across the street from Busch Stadium. He is said to be symptomless and yet on Friday was placed on the injured list following a positive COVID-19 test.
In Kennedy’s view, and those of several of his teammates, this no longer makes sense, and he would like to see Major League Baseball update its COVID protocols.
SCOREBOARD | STANDINGS | INJURIES
“It feels like the rest of the country is moving away from masks,” Kennedy said. “They’re dropping all these mandates. Even the CDC stayed at five days (of quarantine) if you do have symptoms, then after, if you’re symptom-free after five days, then you’re kind of fine. Whereas we’re doing things — Mark is sitting in a hotel room with no symptoms. That’s our closer. We need him in our bullpen.”
Melancon is the second Diamondbacks reliever in as many days to land on the COVID injured list, following right-hander J.B. Wendelken on Thursday. Their absences forced the Diamondbacks to rearrange bullpen roles on Friday night.
After left-hander Madison Bumgarner turned in five strong innings, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo turned to rookie Luis Frias for five outs before going to Noe Ramirez (three outs), Joe Mantiply (one) and Kennedy (three).
Because Melancon was deemed a close contact of someone in the organization who had tested positive, he was required to enter COVID protocols and submit to testing.
“We’re testing people who don’t have symptoms; it’s almost like we’re trying to find something,” Kennedy said. “We’re trying to seek it out. If we’re not showing symptoms at all, let’s just not test. The rest of the country is not.”
“In 2020, that’s fine. We didn’t know much. Now, we know more. It just doesn’t make sense, at least in my eyes. We’ve lived it for so long.”
The league’s protocols call for a player to be out for a baseline of 10 days following a positive test, though that can be cut short by testing negative twice on PCR tests. Close contacts who are vaccinated do not have to quarantine and can keep playing. Close contacts who are unvaccinated must miss five days for a mandatory quarantine.
Bumgarner shook off a 29-pitch first — an inning in which he surrendered a solo homer to Paul Goldschmidt to cap a 12-pitch at-bat — and managed to get through the fifth at 89 pitches. He said he finally feels like he has mostly rid himself of an illness that had lingered for the better part of two weeks and had sapped him of energy in his previous two starts.
“I felt good,” Bumgarner said. “I could have gone and thrown well over 100 pitches, I think, tonight. I don’t think that was an option, though, so we decided that instead of going back out and throwing five or six, just hand it off.”
Bumgarner has allowed just three earned runs so far this season. Though he has logged just 23 innings — a low total due to the shortened spring and his illness — it is the fewest amount of earned runs he has allowed through five starts in any season of his career.
The Diamondbacks received contributions from nearly everyone in the lineup —and from several rookies in their stable of young position players. Cooper Hummel fought back from an 0-2 hole to deliver a run-scoring single. Geraldo Perdomo worked a key leadoff walk. Jose Herrera walked, singled and scored twice.
“We’re going to compete,” Hummel said. “I think we really showed that today. We’re not just a young team that can roll over. We’re going to be here to battle. We’re going to be here to stay. And that’s a very good Cardinals lineup. The more we do that, the more we put together, the more the confidence is going to grow, especially for the young guys.”
Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Ian Kennedy closes out Diamondbacks' win over Cardinals, criticizes MLB COVID policy
