Friday Night's Red Sox-Yankees Game Will Be Played; Thursday's Postponed Game Rescheduled As Doubleheader In August

BOSTON (CBS) -- There will be baseball in the Bronx on Friday night. The Red Sox and the Yankees will begin their series, which was supposed to start Thursday night until positive COVID-19 tests on the New York roster forced the game's postponement.

"After conducting testing and contact tracing involving members of the New York Yankees' organization, the Club's home game tonight vs. the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium will proceed as scheduled," Major League Baseball announced Friday afternoon.

Thursday's game was postponed after three relief pitchers on the Yankees returned positive tests. Three other Yankees players also returned positive tests, prompting the team to conduct further testing on the team.

The Red Sox also went through testing, and no players returned positive tests.

"I've been concerned since Day 1, but as long as we continue to do the things we're supposed to do -- and our medical department has been outstanding -- that is all we can control," Boston manager Alex Cora said ahead of Friday's game. "So far so good."

Cora added that he feels for Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who had a lot to deal with both Thursday and Friday.

"It's tough. I talked to [Boone] yesterday and with these issues, there is a lot of stuff that comes into play. Less important is the competition,." he said. "It's the other things that come into play; the clubhouse, the clubbies, everyone that is involved in this operation. It's uncomfortable and I know how tough it was for him yesterday. That's the part that, hopefully, we can avoid."

Thursday's game will now be made up as part of a split doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, August 17. The first game will be played at 1:05 p.m. (ET), followed by the previously scheduled 7:05 p.m. (ET) game.