The Miami Marlins' opening home game of the Major League Baseball season has been postponed after an outbreak of COVID-19 swept through the team, US media reported on Monday. ESPN reported that the Marlins game against the Baltimore Orioles, scheduled for Monday, had been scrapped after eight more players and two coaches tested positive for the coronavirus. It came after four Marlins players were confirmed to have tested positive for the disease on Sunday as the team wrapped up a road series in Philadelphia. There was no immediate confirmation from Major League Baseball that Monday's Marlins-Orioles game had been postponed. The Marlins had opted to remain in Philadelphia on Sunday rather than travel back to Florida as a precaution. News of the Marlins positive cases comes with Major League Baseball less than a week into its abbreviated 2020 season. The season finally got under way last Thursday four months after it had been due to open in March. Games are taking place without fans, while players are subject to a range of strict health and safety protocols designed to prevent outbreaks of COVID-19. Players are tested for the disease every 48 hours, while masks will be mandatory for all players not on the field of play. Unlike other sports leagues, such as Major League Soccer and the NBA, which are restarting their seasons with all the teams based at a single location, baseball has opted to leave clubs at their home ballparks, meaning they must travel throughout the United States during the season. That decision has been criticised as risky by health experts as swathes of the US are battling skyrocketing coronavirus cases. rcw/pb