WASHINGTON (AP) — Josh Bell swung at golf-ball-sized Wiffle balls darting about at what he estimates was 75 to 95 mph. Kyle Schwarber used virtual reality goggles to study major league pitching and took some real-world hacks with the help of a tee and net delivered to his home.
Whatever it took to try to get ready for their debuts with the Washington Nationals — 11 days after the MLB season actually began.
Bell, Schwarber and Josh Harrison were reinstated from the injured list Monday by the Nationals, making the team’s roster nearly whole again after a coronavirus outbreak sidelined nine players and caused postponements of four games.
“Our lineup’s intact,” manager Dave Martinez said before Washington’s series opener at the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night, when Schwarber started in left field, Bell at first base and Harrison at second — just as they had been expected to be for Game 1 of 2021.
“I talked to them this morning when they landed and asked how they were doing,” said Martinez, whose team entered Monday with a 1-5 record and on a five-game losing streak. “And without hesitation, all three of them said to put them in the lineup, that they were ready to go.”
Martinez also said “most” of the Nationals got shots for the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine in St. Louis at their hotel with help from MLB and the Cardinals.
Bell, Schwarber and Harrison were part of the group kept away from the rest of the club because of COVID-19 protocols. Four players tested positive for the illness shortly before the season was supposed to start, while five others were put under quarantine after contact tracing determined they might have been exposed.
The Nationals never announced which players fell into which category.
Now eight of the nine are…
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