Las Vegas’ Kintzler, Marlins on lockdown after virus outbreak

Last month when we spoke in the garage and man cave of his Las Vegas home, Brandon Kintzler was talking about the prospect of resuming his major league career with the Miami Marlins. That seemed to be a dubious fate, even before COVID-19 hit.

You might say it was fun for the three days it lasted.

But pitching to contact in front of cardboard cutouts as the Phillie Phanatic waddled around an empty ballpark trying to dodge a pandemic virus was weird, not fun. Remember, it’s a virus that, like The Mighty Casey, refuses to strike out.

Kintzler made the most of it. He picked up a save in his Marlins’ debut Friday. He pitched another scoreless inning Sunday.

Cue the fake crowd noise.

But Monday, he was quarantined in his Philadelphia hotel room, awaiting word on whether his name would be added to the surreptitious list of teammates who have tested positive for COVID-19.

As of Monday morning, there were at least 13 in the traveling party who have been infected. And so the Marlins’ home opener against the Baltimore Orioles on Monday night was postponed on account of virus.

There’s no crying in baseball, and apparently there’s no playing it in a hazmat suit either.

Room service hops

“They’re just holed up in their rooms, waiting for another test result,” Rick Kintzler said of his sinkerballing son, twice drafted in the 40th round en route to pitching a perfect inning in the 2017 All-Star Game for the Minnesota Twins, the highlight of his 11-year big league career so far.

“Not yet,” the elder Kintzler said when asked if Brandon was one of the Marlins who had tested positive, a statistic that has become more vital than Wins Above Replacement (and a lot easier to understand). “He’s been negative every time.”

The elder Kintzler said the Marlins were planning to stay in Philly another day, in which case Tuesday’s game against Baltimore also would be postponed. He said his son and the other Marlins would then ride the bus to Baltimore for two regularly scheduled games there against the Orioles.

He has a lot more confidence in the Marlins’ recuperative powers and the MLB pandemic protocol than many in the baseball media who were writing Monday that MLB is down to 29 teams until further notice. And what remains of the 60-game schedule could soon come tumbling down like a pyramid of beer cups in the bleachers when fans were allowed to sit in them.

“The bad thing about it is that he can’t even go throw anywhere, because he doesn’t have his equipment,” Rick Kintzler said, noting Brandon’s gear already has arrived in Miami.

It was packed away after Sunday’s game at forlorn Citizens Bank Park, where another native Las Vegas baseball son, Bryce Harper, hit a home run and played the outfield wearing a virus mask — just in case, one supposes, he brushed up against a teammate who had brushed up against an infected Marlin while running the bases.

COVID-19, MLB 0

When Brandon Kintzler and I spoke in June, he said the delay in getting back on the field seemed mostly about money and prorated contracts.

Not that the coronavirus was totally out of mind. But by then he appeared to have been pushed to the back of the bullpen.

“I was thinking I wanted to play only a few more years,” said the former Palo Verde High ace, who turns 36 Saturday. “But now with this pandemic, it makes me realize I want to play more than I thought.”

With the virus running more indiscriminately than Rickey Henderson and nobody covering third base, career longevity is no longer Kintzler’s choice. You would not wish a case of COVID-19 on Ty Cobb or your worst enemy, but there are those who believe MLB is reaping what it sowed by insisting on playing ball outside of a bubble.

“The health of our players and staff has been and will continue to be our primary focus as we navigate through these uncharted waters,” Marlins CEO Derek Jeter said in a statement.

But with Sunday’s game played as scheduled — despite four of those players testing positive before it — and Brandon Kintzler now under lockdown and searching for a Wiffle Ball to throw against his hotel room door, it makes one wonder if banging on trash cans in the dugout would have been a better idea.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.