Phillies: Tom McCarthy discusses Marlins, season lull, sons

Are the Phillies just as ‘guilty’?

Rumors have suggested that the Marlins made the Phillies aware of their situation last Sunday and asked if they would still like to play.

McCarthy told Shulman that he does not know if that is true, as far as the Phillies “signing off” on playing, but he does know that manager Joe Girardi said the following morning that, in reality, the two teams probably should not have played.

“I don’t know if that’s true,” McCarthy said. “My feeling through the whole thing — it could have been this way and we just don’t know — that it probably should have been somebody else other than the Marlins and Phillies that decide whether the game should’ve been played or not.”

“I think that’s where the issues are concerning,” McCarthy continued. “I think that if somebody else could’ve come up with the decision in Major League Baseball’s sense, it probably would have been a better way to go at it.”

Are the Phillies angry at the Marlins?

McCarthy said he has not talked to anyone about ill-will directed toward the Marlins, specifically, but that he has texted with a couple of players about the frustration they’re going through.

“They are frustrated about it — but, nothing’s been sort of posed toward the Marlins,” he said. “I think that all of us have a pretty good idea of how contagious this virus was and still is. The Phillies totally understood it because they had an issue in Clearwater about four weeks ago and they saw how careful they needed to be around this.”

McCarthy did acknowledge, however, that he thinks all of baseball and sports will probably feel ill-will toward the Marlins upon further confirmation of their actions in Atlanta.