Column: Baseball holding its own, a third of the way through

In Los Angeles the other night, the cutouts behind home plate had extra big smiles on their faces as Mookie Betts smashed three home runs at Dodger Stadium.

On the same night, Yu Darvish took a no-hitter into the seventh inning at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs jumped off to their best start in more than a century.

Fans were forced to cheer from home for both performances, for reasons well known to everyone. Still, they were a reminder that — if you suspend reality just a little — everything in sports doesn’t have to be about COVID-19.

A third of the way into the strangest season ever, baseball is working, at least in spots. There are reasons to turn on the television to watch, even if nothing is really the same.

There’s a new team in Buffalo, though no one in Buffalo can go to see it. Soon there will be a team again in St. Louis, assuming all goes well.

Most important, baseball is starting to beat the numbers, though the cancellation of games this weekend in Cincinnati were a grim reminder that the virus can’t be totally beaten. Before that, though, only four of the 12,301 tests conducted over the last week by MLB were positive.

It’s still awfully weird, of course, even if the fake crowd noise isn’t as bothersome as it was just a few weeks ago. The virus continues to overshadow everything and it’s become increasingly clear that some teams will pay the price while others won’t.

One glance at the standings shows just how weird. While some teams have played as many as 21 games, the Cardinals were stuck at five before resuming their season Saturday in Chicago.

And who would have thought Miami would be on top of the NL East and Baltimore would have a winning record at any point in any season?

But Aaron Judge is hitting home runs in New York like it was...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Column-Baseball-holding-its-own-a-third-of-the-15486668.php