Turns out Alex Rios and Kelvin Herrera didn't attend chickenpox parties as children. The Kansas City Royals players were both contacted with the virus on the team's weekend trip to Tampa Bay, per Royals.com.
They were subsequently sent home on a private jet to recover from their ailments.
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Rios began to show symptoms on Saturday, potentially leading to Herrera's symptoms the following day. After the diagnosis, the Royal's medical staff began polling players on whether they had been previously infected with the virus or vaccinated for it.
The Friends episode where Phoebe gets chickenpox just came on. How...topical? #Royals
— Ruben Carlos Alonzo (@MoStateRCA) September 2, 2015
All players checked out, but trainer Nick Kenney isn't ruling out the possibility of a repeat infection.
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"It's a small chance, but there are no 100 percents," Kenney said. "We're still on alert. We're telling our players, 'If you see anything, we need to inspect it.' We're still in heightened mode. Right now, we got two days in between our last incident. I feel good about it, but not about great."
Both Rios and Herrera are expected to miss two weeks at the most. Fortunately, the Royals boast a 5.5-game lead over the Blue Jays in the AL and a 12-game lead over the Twins in the AL Central.
Herrera's 2.12 ERA will be missed during that stretch, but Rios' .253 batting average...not so much.
if it takes chicken pox to stop Alex Rios from playing I'll take it
— Lauren Lanter (@__LSQUARED) September 1, 2015
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