Liverpool made one of the easiest title runs in the history of the Premier League, clinching the title with seven of 38 matches remaining. They finished the season with 99 points in league play, second-most ever after Manchester City, who finished 18 points behind the Reds in second place this year. Does that level of dominance portend a run of titles for Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, or will the league race be a much more competitive affair next year? Probably the latter.

This week, we've looked at each of next year's most likely Premier League contenders, their biggest strengths and weaknesses moving forward, and what they must do to rise to the top of the league. We finish with a look at how the champs themselves, simultaneous holders of domestic (Premier League), continental (Champions League) and world titles (FIFA Club World Cup), can stay on top.

Good news: Nothing's broken

Liverpool's building job under Klopp was a strangely linear story. They needed to improve in Area A -- stretching packed-in defenses or guarding against counter-attacks or closing out tight games -- so they did so. They needed to add Final Piece B -- a prolific winger such as Mo Salah, a physical, strong-passing central defender such as Virgil van Dijk, an ace goalkeeper such as Alisson -- and they nailed it. They improved a little in Klopp's incomplete first season, then improved a lot, then improved a lot more and so on.

While Manchester City could or should have provided a starker challenge, Liverpool were truly elite. Offensively, they were inferior only to City (second in goals scored, second in possession rate and third in average passes per possession), but they also ranked first in goals allowed and first in opponents' average passes per possession, and they matched City's pressing ability.

Better yet, of the 12 players who logged at least 1,400 minutes in league play, none are older than 30. Whereas some championship clubs hold on to the past and age out of their prime, Liverpool isn't in danger of doing that for at least another year or two.

That said, they're going to have a lot of decisions to make in a couple of years -- van Dijk, wingers Salah and Sadio Mane, forward Roberto Firmino and midfielders Jordan Henderson and Georginio Wijnaldum are all between 28 and 30 years old. But if they want a victory lap, or their iffy transfer budget just makes it seem like they do, they might get away with it.

Bad news: Regression catches up to you

So do hangovers, and you can make a pretty compelling case that Liverpool's hangover already started.

In the last month before the coronavirus stoppage, Liverpool lost more matches than they did in the previous 13 months combined. They eked out wins over Norwich City and West Ham United with late goals, got rocked by Watford, then lost 2-0 to Chelsea in the FA Cup three days later. They also lost 1-0 and 3-2 to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League round of 16.

- Ogden: Grading all 20 Premier League teams for 2019-20
- Stream FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

After the stoppage, they averaged a solid, but not title-worthy, 1.9 points per match. Klopp opened up the squad rotation a bit with the title in the bag, but the utterly torrid form of last fall didn't reappear, and as we saw from the end of Klopp's time at Borussia Dortmund, it's hard to get sixth gear back when you lose it. (We also saw Bayern and other rich clubs buy away all of BVB's best players, and that doesn't appear to be a danger this time around.)

General hangover concerns aside, there was one area in which Liverpool was unsustainably good: close games. This is a massive regression-to-the-mean category; it's really difficult to be excellent, or terrible, in this area every year.

In 18 league matches decided by zero or one goals, Liverpool won 14, drew three and lost only one. That's 2.5 points per close match. Over the past 10 years in Europe's big five leagues, only Juventus, with 2.67 in 2013-14, have topped that average. And after that leap, they averaged 1.83 and 1.85 the next two seasons. Overall, each of the 13 Big Five teams to top 2.1 points per close match in a given year saw that average fall the next.

CATCHING LIVERPOOL
- Arsenal, Spurs, Leicester: Can they contend?

Regression always finds you. Just ask Manchester City, who went from averaging 2.13 and 2.07 points per close match during their back-to-back title wins to 1.5 this year. If both Liverpool and City had averaged 2.0 instead -- and I'll pause to let you think back to all those late Liverpool goals that turned draws into wins -- Liverpool's 18-point lead in the table would have become a two-point grapple.

This is not to say that luck won Liverpool the title, but this part of the championship recipe is almost impossible to duplicate.

Biggest priority: Midfield, maybe?

Even with some close-games fortune, this was a dynamite team, and while soccer may be a weakest-link game, as Chris Anderson and David Sally put it in 2013's "The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Football Is Wrong," pinpointing a weak link is awfully hard.

The Reds weren't quite as good at finishing as they could have been: Mane, Salah and Firmino produced 53.2 XG but only 46 actual goals, mostly due to a shaky run from Firmino. This might explain why they were interested in RB Leipzig's Timo Werner for so long before he signed with Chelsea. But Firmino has been perfectly decent in the finishing department before this season (2015-16 through 2018-19: 42.9 XG, 48 goals), so that was probably more of a blip than a quality issue.

Their opponents' shot quality was a little too good: The Reds allowed 0.127 XG per shot, which ranked just 11th in the Premier League. Possession-heavy teams tend to be vulnerable to counter-attacks, and therefore higher shot quality, but the fact that opponents turned 43.5 XG into only 33 goals suggests their defensive output was maybe a little better than it should have been.

Combined with the fact that van Dijk played in all 38 matches this year, and it's really hard to count on that happening every season, maybe that suggests a potential need to upgrade or add to depth in central defense. (Then again, van Dijk's main counterpart, Joe Gomez, is only 23 and should continue to improve.)

Could their midfield passing improve? Klopp has, through the years, come up with a fascinating way of opening up park-the-bus defenses and making it harder for opponents to counter. He has, in a sense, flipped the pitch inside out, turning central midfielders into defenders and fullbacks into attacking midfielders. Fullbacks Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson led the team with a combined 25 assists in league play, and wingers Salah and Mane combined for 17 more.

Liverpool worked from outside in while maintaining a sturdy, conservative base in midfield, where Jordan Henderson led the way with just five assists. For comparison, this was almost the exact opposite of Manchester City, which got 30 combined assists from midfielders Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva, 10 from wingers Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling and six from fullbacks Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy.

If we're looking at ways to improve Liverpool, however, wouldn't it be possible to fit in a few more incisive passes from midfield while maintaining said sturdy base?

Liverpool's apparent interest in Bayern Munich's Thiago this offseason has been a source of confusion for some. The club did such an incredible job of acquiring players for their peak years, so what sense would it make to go after a 29-year old whose injury history is lengthy enough to require a full second page on his Transfermarkt profile? Why add to what is already going to be pretty significant roster churn two or three years from now?

Relying too heavily on transfer rumors can make you insane, not to mention wrong about 99% of the time, but let's just say that if the interest in Thiago is real, I get it. There might not be a better possession man in soccer, and midfielders of his statistical profile -- elite pass completion rates in and out of the attacking third, plus elite take-on and duel success rates -- tend to be either veterans (Real Madrid's Toni Kroos) or cost-prohibitive youngsters (new Juventus acquisition Arthur).

If your best, or only, way to improve in the present is to replace someone such as Wijnaldum or Fabinho with a more accurate pivot, then you at least look into it.

HOUSTON -- Texans coach and general manager Bill O'Brien on Friday said the team is "working hard" with quarterback Deshaun Watson's representatives on a contract extension, and that "we want him here for a long time."

Watson, a first-round pick in 2017, was eligible for a contract extension for the first time this offseason. He made less than $3.8 million in 2019, which was just 4.88% of the Texans' cap. He is scheduled to make $4.4 million during the 2020 season.

"Deshaun is a great player, an even better person, and we want him here for a long time," O'Brien said. "... I know that we're working hard. We're not going to really talk about it in the media, but obviously we feel so strongly about him and the future of him in this offense, in this organization, and we want him here for a long time."

The Texans began "very preliminary" discussions with Watson and his agents about a new deal in April.

"Respectfully, we're not going to talk about contracts in the media, but we obviously have stated [that] we have so much belief in Deshaun," O'Brien said Friday. "We love Deshaun. We want him here for a long time, but we're not going to negotiate contracts or do anything like that in the media. We'll keep that between us and Deshaun's representatives. He's here, he's excited and we're excited about the season."

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who was drafted two picks before Watson in 2017, signed a 10-year extension earlier this month that could be worth up to $503 million, sources told ESPN.

During a recent interview with Michael Vick on Fox Sports, Watson said his situation is different from that of Mahomes.

"My situation, and I don't want to say anything too crazy, is different than his," Watson said. "Signing a deal for 10 years, you know, I have to speak with my agent on that. Sit down and think, 'What do I want in my career? Where I want to be for a long period of time?' I love Houston, I love the organization, I love the teammates and all the players, but all that stuff is always changing."

The pre-restart training camp Mike D'Antoni so eagerly anticipated for the Houston Rockets -- a team remodeled midseason with a drastic shift in philosophy to microball -- never really materialized. Due to late arrivals, including both of the team's superstars, as well as Austin Rivers' excused exit and reentry, the Rockets never had their full roster available for a practice in the Walt Disney World campus outside Orlando, Florida.

Hey, at least Houston was healthy headed into its final scrimmage. Unfortunately, that didn't last long, as Eric Gordon had to be helped off the court after he sprained his ankle in the first half Tuesday, an injury that could sideline the Rockets' third-leading scorer for the entire eight-game seeding schedule.

"Everybody is saying two or three weeks," D'Antoni said a day later. "The ankle will tell you when he's ready."

The Dallas Mavericks are familiar with that feeling. Luka Doncic's historically productive sophomore season was twice interrupted by sprains of his right ankle, which needed several weeks of rest to fully recover. That was the silver lining of the NBA's pandemic-caused suspension for the Mavs.

Doncic, who had also been nursing a sprained left thumb and sprained right wrist before the hiatus, arrived in Florida with a clean bill of health and fresh legs. He has that bit of extra burst back, as he did early in the season, when he looked like a legitimate MVP candidate (averaging 30.4 points, 9.9 rebounds and 9.3 assists in 24 games before his first ankle sprain).

A healthy Doncic, now surrounded by four 3-point shooters with Seth Curry solidifying his spot in the starting lineup, makes Dallas a dangerous team. Especially if the Mavs can climb upward out of the Western Conference's No. 7 seed, which probably would mean avoiding a quarterfinals matchup with the LA Clippers.

One of the teams directly above Dallas in the standings? The Rockets.

That puts a little extra oomph on the restart opener for the Interstate 45 rivals. As much as the Rockets want to treat the seeding schedule as tune-up time, slipping to seventh could have serious consequences. -- Tim MacMahon

Here's the latest on the standings, the games to watch Friday and Saturday, plus everything you need to know. Check back here for highlights and updates throughout the day.

PAST BUBBLE INTEL: July 30

The latest buzz

Jamal Crawford won't debut today

After he hadn't played all season, Jamal Crawford was signed by the Brooklyn Nets as a replacement player for the seeding games. However, Crawford didn't play in any of the Nets three scrimmages and was declared out for conditioning purposes on the team's injury report heading into Friday's game against the Orlando Magic. Crawford last played in the NBA on April 9, 2019 when he scored 51 points for the Phoenix Suns in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks -- a game more notably remembered as the home finale for Dirk Nowitzki.

Friday's must-see games

Boston Celtics vs. Milwaukee Bucks | 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN

The Bucks enter the restart 6.5 games up on the Raptors for the top seed in the East, meaning Milwaukee doesn't have much to play for. Still, these next eight games will give Mike Budenholzer's squad a chance to warm up for the playoffs. It's hard to remember now, but the Bucks went into the hiatus in something of a slump, having lost four of five games to fall off a 70-win pace. But Giannis Antetokounmpo was banged up then. The reigning and likely repeat MVP is healthy and ready to go.

Houston Rockets vs. Dallas Mavericks | 9 p.m. ET on ESPN

The Rockets' small-ball experiment remains one of the most fascinating storylines to watch in the bubble. Houston has only two players taller than 6-foot-8 on its roster and those two -- Tyson Chandler and Bruno Caboclo -- have combined to play only 31 games for the Rockets this season. Houston saw some early success with its small lineup but had lost four of five before the season was suspended. Two of those losses came without Eric Gordon, who could miss the next two weeks after spraining his ankle in the Rockets' final scrimmage.

Additional games

• Orlando Magic vs. Brooklyn Nets | 2:30 p.m. ET

• Memphis Grizzlies vs. Portland Trail Blazers | 4 p.m. ET on NBA TV

• Phoenix Suns vs. Washington Wizards | 4 p.m. ET

• Sacramento Kings vs. San Antonio Spurs | 8 p.m. ET

Full scoreboard for July 31

Play-in watch

The non-ESPN games on Friday all feature teams playing for their playoff lives. The Orlando Magic and Brooklyn Nets would be the last seeds in the East if the playoffs started today. The Washington Wizards are chasing them, but need to make up 1.5 games to force a play-in. The Phoenix Suns need to make up 2.5 games in the West. Both the Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs are on the outside looking in as they face each other Friday. And the Portland Trail Blazers get the first crack at the current 8-seed in the West, the Memphis Grizzlies.

Eastern Conference
7. Brooklyn Nets | 30-34 (.469)
8. Orlando Magic | 30-35 (.462)
9. Washington Wizards | 24-40 (.375) | 5.5 GB

Western Conference
8. Memphis Grizzlies | 32-33 (0.492)
9. Portland Trail Blazers | 29-37 (0.439) | 3.5 GB
10. Sacramento Kings | 28-36 (0.438) | 3.5 GB
11. New Orleans Pelicans | 28-37 (0.431) | 4.0 GB
12. San Antonio Spurs | 27-36 (0.429) | 4 GB
13. Phoenix Suns | 26-39 (0.4) | 6 GB

Full standings | Playoff matchups

Saturday's must-see games

Utah Jazz vs. Oklahoma City Thunder | 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN

The game that started, and really, stopped, it all. After a four-month delay, the Thunder and Jazz finally play. When we left off, this game was about to be for the current 4-seed in the Western Conference. And it maintains those big implications as both teams are firmly in the mix for a top-four seed. It's an important game -- for a lot of reasons.

New Orleans Pelicans vs. LA Clippers | 6 p.m. ET on ESPN

Both teams are 0-1 in the bubble, and in both cases lost tight, toss-up games. The Pelicans looked excellent, even with Zion Williamson's minute restriction -- for about 3 ½ quarters. The Clippers did the same thing, except they just couldn't find enough offense down the stretch. The Pelicans are more desperate than the Clippers here to get their first restart win, though, because there aren't many chances available.

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Toronto Raptors | 8:30pm ET on ESPN

After beating the Clippers on opening night, the Lakers get the defending champs in another high-level matchup. There's a lot of talk about how the already-great chemistry of the Raptors has only strengthened in the bubble, and while they're an Eastern Conference threat, they're still seen as somewhat of a dark horse. There's an opportunity to make a strong statement here against the presumed title favorite.

Additional games

• Miami Heat vs. Denver Nuggets | 1 p.m. ET on ESPN

• Philadelphia 76ers vs. Indiana Pacers | 7 p.m. ET

Full scoreboard for Aug. 1

Analysis and intel

The best and biggest moments from the NBA's thrilling return

From player protests to renewed rivalries, our NBA experts react to the first night of restart action.

What Jusuf Nurkic gained from losing a year to injury

A horrific leg injury sidelined the Trail Blazers center for 16 months, but he says he believes the time away made him a better player -- and person.

The NBA bubble is a grand experiment in epidemiology

We'll see how technology, policy and human behavior influence an epidemic -- and what we can do to stop it.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The Sacramento Kings had to quarantine a player for two days after an inconclusive coronavirus test result on Wednesday, but successive negative results on Thursday and Friday are expected to allow for his availability against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night, sources told ESPN.

Inconclusive tests -- or "false positives" -- require an individual to register two consecutive negative tests in the next 48 hours for clearance, according to NBA protocols. The process of clearing players from these inconclusive tests is a significant concern for teams in the bubble; they worry that this scenario could cause a key player -- or players -- to be lost for a game or more in seeding or playoff games.

Some published studies have shown that five of every 1,000 tests for the coronavirus in the United States can come back as inconclusive. The NBA has been working with doctors and scientists to find a way to safely shorten that 48-hour quarantine period, but there are limitations in the science and technology that present challenges to speeding up that process, sources said.

Other teams in the Orlando, Florida, bubble told ESPN that they have had similar testing scenarios with staff members leading up to the restart, but with games underway now, there is far greater concern of losing players for a two-day window.

The NBA has yet to have a positive COVID-19 test among its players in the bubble environment of Walt Disney World Resort.

The Milwaukee Bucks are big favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference. According to Caesars Sportsbook, they enter the bubble at minus-230 to reach the NBA Finals in October.

Still, respect from Vegas is one thing, but execution in Orlando is another. While the Bucks have the league's best record, the reigning MVP and the top defense, these guys are beatable. Just ask the defending champion Toronto Raptors, who knocked them out last year with a simple blueprint that could repeat itself this year.

With the Boston Celtics taking on the Bucks in each team's restart debut Friday (6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN), here are the three rules any contender will have to follow to take down the seeming juggernaut in Milwaukee.

Rule 1: Keep Giannis away from the bucket

Giannis Antetokounmpo comes into the bubble as the most efficient volume scorer in the league. He's posting an effective field goal percentage (eFG%) of 58.3% this season, the highest such mark among the NBA's top 50 scorers.

How does he do it? Dunks and layups -- lots of them. Just look at this:

More than almost any other modern superstar, Antetokounmpo dominates with one old-school shot location. His impressive overall efficiency numbers stem from his all-world abilities to attack and finish at the rack. If you can keep him out of the paint, he's mortal. If you can't, it's over.

Consider these two stats:

• This season, Antetokounmpo has attempted 727 shots in the paint and converted 66% of them. Out of 81 NBA players with at least 300 paint shots this season, he's the fifth-most efficient.

• He also has attempted 393 non-paint shots. His eFG% on those attempts is just 43.6%. Out of 116 players with at least 300 non-paint shots, he ranks 109th in efficiency.

He's basically Shaquille O'Neal in the paint but Andrew Wiggins outside of it. Shaq won four titles by dominating inside. If Milwaukee wins one this year, it will be because nobody could stifle Antetokounmpo's interior prowess. But when the Bucks were bounced last year, Toronto did just that.

During the 2018-19 regular season, Antetokounmpo led the league by averaging 17.5 points per game in the paint. His dominance extended into the postseason, as Milwaukee went 8-1 in the first two rounds. But after Toronto head coach Nick Nurse moved Kawhi Leonard onto Giannis, the Raptors won four straight by containing the NBA's most dangerous interior scorer.

In Milwaukee's 10 postseason wins last season, Giannis averaged 15.8 interior PPG. In the team's five losses, he averaged 10.8 PPG.

The good news for Bucks fans is that Leonard is in Los Angeles now. The bad news is that he and the Raps gave the league a roadmap. If a team can figure out how to slow Giannis' interior roll, history might repeat itself.

It might not be that far-fetched. Two potential second-round opponents have already found success here.

On Christmas in Philly, Giannis made just 6 of 15 paint shots as the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Bucks by 12. Brett Brown used a combination of Al Horford and Joel Embiid to defend Giannis and keep him away from the rim.

A few months later, Antetokounmpo made 5 of 10 paint shots as Bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat held Milwaukee to just 89 points in an impressive 16-point win. (If there's one defender in the East who should scare the Bucks, it's Adebayo.)

Milwaukee still should be favored to beat either Miami or Philly in a seven-game series, but matchups are key in the playoffs. Both teams have already shown they might be able to slow down the MVP and put the onus on Milwaukee's secondary pieces.

Rule 2: Make Middleton beat you

Speaking of secondary options, Khris Middleton has been incredible this season. He has become a 50/40/90-type shooter, an NBA All-Star and, of course, a very wealthy man. He's in the first year of a five-year, $178 million contract because the Bucks believe he can be a difference-maker when it matters most.

Middleton has become one of the most efficient volume shooters in the league. Just look at this:

But when the Bucks needed Middleton to thrive in the Toronto series last year, he went the other way. Milwaukee gave up a chance to go up 3-0 in a six-point loss in Game 3, with Middleton shooting 3 for 16 and posting nine points in 44 minutes. Oof. Then, with the series tied 2-2 in Game 5 at home, Middleton didn't answer, going 2-for-9 in 36 minutes. Again, the Bucks lost by six. The rest is Canadian history.

Antetokounmpo has become a perennial MVP candidate because he is the most ferocious two-way player on earth. But his case is also helped because he sometimes looks alone in big games. He can easily seem so much more valuable than any other player on his team. Middleton could definitely change that in the bubble, but you can bet Bucks opponents will design their game plans to make him prove it.

Rule 3: Make your 3s

On the other end of the court, Mike Budenholzer's top-ranked defense famously protects the rim at all costs while daring opponents to beat them with jumpers. It's an extreme dichotomy: No team in the league has given up fewer points in the paint, and no team has given up more 3-pointers.

Their defensive philosophy is built on the premise that you cannot protect everything effectively. Given their massive frontcourt personnel in the Lopez twins and Giannis, the Bucks can dominate rim protection and the defensive glass while spending fewer resources on closeouts on the edges.

No team has given up more open 3s than the Bucks. Milwaukee has given up 1,301 3-point tries (7.6 per game) with the closest defender at least 6 feet away, per Second Spectrum tracking. While it's a risky game to play, overall it has worked well. The Bucks have been the most efficient defense in the league in each of Budenholzer's two seasons. But when shooters get hot, the Bucks' defense can falter, which is what happened against the Raptors.

Go back to the final four games of those conference finals, when new dad and Canadian folk hero Fred VanVleet caught fire and made 15 of his 25 3-point attempts. That's wild.

While VanVleet is a good 3-point shooter, he's not Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson. Most NBA teams now have shooters capable of catching fire. All of the Bucks' top Eastern rivals -- Toronto, Boston and Miami -- excel from downtown, and all of them feature snipers capable of VanVleeting for a few games, punishing Milwaukee's tendency to give up juicy looks from downtown.

Here's a sample of East sharpshooters and their open 3-point numbers:

The league is now chock-full of sharpshooters, but looking at that table, some teams have more guys who match up against Milwaukee's defense better. Miami seems uniquely positioned to punish Milwaukee's defensive approach, and that's more than just hypothetical. Miami is 2-0 against Milwaukee this season in part because of Adebayo, and in part because its shooters have made 42% of their 3s and racked up 51 points per game from downtown in those wins.

The point is that what has happened before could happen again. Milwaukee deserves to be the favorite in the East, but the Bucks are by no means invincible. Just ask Fred VanVleet.

The Chicago White Sox have called up highly regarded second base prospect Nick Madrigal, the team announced Friday.

Madrigal, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2018 draft, has no major league experience. The 23-year-old hit .311 with four home runs and 55 RBIs last year while playing at high Class A, Double-A and Triple-A. He also played for the U.S. in last year's All-Star Futures Game.

The White Sox also designated right-hander Kelvin Herrera for assignment.

Herrera, a two-time All-Star with the Kansas City Royals, had allowed a 15.43 ERA in two appearances this season.

The 30-year-old Herrera made 57 relief appearances for the White Sox in 2019 after signing a two-year, $18 million deal, posting a 6.14 ERA over 51 1/3 innings.

The New York Yankees will no longer have any players on the COVID-19 injured list after closer Aroldis Chapman was cleared to return to the team, sources told ESPN on Friday.

Chapman became the Yankees' third major leaguer to test positive for COVID-19 on July 11, back at the start of "summer camp."

All-Star infielder DJ LeMahieu and pitcher Luis Cessa also tested positive before heading to New York to complete the intake testing protocols. Both had already been cleared by the team, and LeMahieu made his season debut July 25.

In Chapman's case, he had passed all intake testing and was allowed to report to workouts at Yankee Stadium before testing positive for the novel coronavirus during the monitoring phase.

The Yankees, who continue to have one of the deepest relief corps in the majors, have won four of their first five games of the 2020 season without Chapman. Zack Britton closed out two of those games.

Nonetheless, the Yankees' bullpen will remain shorthanded given the fact that Tommy Kahnle is not available due to undisclosed reasons.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone opted to use pitcher Jonathan Loaisiga in a spot usually reserved for Kahnle during Thursday's game night in Baltimore. Boone only said the 30-year-old Kahnle wasn't available.

"We'll have something on that [Friday]," Boone said.

Kahnle has pitched only one inning this season, throwing 20 pitches and striking out three batters in a 3-2 win over the defending champion Washington Nationals on Sunday.

The Miami Marlins, after an 18th player tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, are getting multiple sleeper buses to take infected players and coaches from Philadelphia to Miami, sources told ESPN's Jesse Rogers on Friday.

In all, the Marlins have had 18 players -- of the 33 traveling with the team -- and two coaches test positive over the past eight days, sources confirmed to ESPN. All games for the team have been postponed through Sunday by Major League Baseball.

El Extra Base was the first to report the new positive test on Friday.

While the players and coaches with the coronavirus are being transported to Miami, the rest of the team will remain in Philadelphia, where the Marlins played last weekend and have been undergoing daily testing.

The prospect of the team's season restarting Tuesday at home against the Phillies remains in question.

If the Marlins play that series in Philadelphia, they could bus to New York to face the Mets, then bus to Buffalo, New York, where the Blue Jays plan to play their home games this season. In that scenario, the Marlins would not return home until their Aug. 14 series against Atlanta, though Miami-Dade County currently requires a 14-day quarantine for people coming into the area from New York, further complicating matters.

Miami could make up the three games against Washington that have been postponed this weekend by scheduling two doubleheaders during future series and playing on their shared Sept. 17 off day. How to make up the four lost games against Baltimore, an interleague opponent, could prove tricky, leading to the possibility the Marlins won't play a full 60-game schedule.

The Marlins is assessing how to fill out a roster with a combination of players: those already in the organization and training at its alternate site in Jupiter, Florida; free agents; and waiver-wire claims.

ESPN's Jeff Passan contributed to this report.

Two St. Louis Cardinals have tested positive for the coronavirus, resulting in Major League Baseball postponing Friday afternoon's game at the Milwaukee Brewers, it was announced.

The Cardinals said they learned about the positive tests late Thursday night and have instructed all players and staff to self-isolate in their hotel rooms in Milwaukee until further notice. The team also said nobody left for Miller Park on Friday morning.

MLB's quick decision to postpone Friday's game, which was scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET, comes after the outbreak within the Miami Marlins, who have had 20 positive tests -- 18 by players over the past eight days after another on Friday, sources told ESPN.

The postponed game has been rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on Sunday, with the first game to start at 2:10 p.m. ET. The league and the MLB Players Association agreed Thursday to stage seven-inning doubleheaders starting Saturday, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN's Jeff Passan.

Saturday's game remains scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET.

MLB said Friday's postponement allows enough time for the Cardinals to do additional testing and conduct contact tracing. A source told ESPN's Jesse Rogers that if what is happening with the Cardinals had occurred before the Marlins' outbreak, Friday's game at Miller Park would still be played.

"We are supportive of Major League Baseball's decision to postpone today's game and look forward to playing our home opener as soon as conditions safely allow," Brewers president/general manager David Stearns said in a statement. "The health and safety of our players and employees are, and will continue to be, our top priorities."

The Cardinals played in Minnesota on Tuesday and Wednesday before a scheduled day off Thursday. The Twins hosted Cleveland on Thursday night, meaning the Indians likely used the same visiting clubhouse as St. Louis. Minnesota is scheduled to host Cleveland again Friday night.

This brings the number of teams being held out of action on Friday to six. The Brewers and Cardinals will join the Marlins, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals and Toronto Blue Jays as teams affected by the fallout from positive tests.

The Cardinals' positives represent the first positive tests the sport has seen outside of the East Coast since the regular season started last week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

CEO Joanna Coates welcomes review findings and says there is “a lot more work to be done”

UK Athletics (UKA) is to action a series of recommendations from an independent safeguarding review, with the national governing body’s CEO Joanna Coates (pictured) acknowledging that there is “a lot more work to be done”.

UKA, together with the four home country athletics federations (HCAF) of Athletics Northern Ireland, England Athletics, Scottish Athletics and Welsh Athletics, say they welcome publication of the ‘Independent Review of UK Athletics Safeguarding – Executive Summary and Recommendations’, which can be downloaded and viewed here.

The review states that UKA “should enhance its safeguarding function in the sport”, with Christopher Quinlan QC, who conducted the review, adding that a recurring theme during his consultations “was a lack of precision in respect of the safeguarding lines of responsibility”.

Quinlan made a total of 29 recommendations, with six of those deemed “core”. They include creating “one single universally applicable safeguarding policy for athletics in the UK for children and another for adults at risk in athletics in the UK”, with UKA taking operational responsibility for safeguarding in the sport of athletics in the UK.

It adds that UKA and each HCAF should have “dedicated safeguarding links” prominent on their website homepage, together with “clear statements of key principles of safeguarding and readily accessible resources”.

With regards training, it states that UKA, England Athletics, Athletics Northern Ireland and Welsh Athletics “should, like Scottish Athletics, make mandatory a form of face-to-face safeguarding training (including virtually)” which is refreshed at least once every three years, for people such as coaches, club welfare officers and volunteers who work directly with children and/or adults at risk.

Another recommendation is that criminal records checks should be required and carried out every three years for all club welfare officers/designated officers, persons who wish to be licensed and/or those coaching or having close and regular supervision of children.

“To enhance its CRC process, UKA should deny a licence to any person to coach, or to officiate in the presence of, children or adults at risk who refuses, if asked, to disclose their criminal records check certificate,” the review adds.

Quinlan said 17 safeguarding cases from the past 18 months were reviewed and he added: “Auditing those cases demonstrated the need for improvement in the process and the desirability of wider ‘sanctioning’ powers. I was struck by the small number of cases overall and how few there were relating to unlicensed persons.”

The review, which was commissioned by UKA in collaboration with the HCAF, was first announced in December 2019 and launched in March this year.

UKA says timelines for delivery specific to volunteer-organised clubs have been set for an initial 12 months to implement, but will be reviewed, and clubs consulted, at regular intervals.

“I welcome the findings of the safeguarding review which clearly lay out what is required of UK Athletics and the home country athletics federations through the comprehensive set of recommendations,” said Coates, who stepped into the chief executive position in March.

Zara Hyde Peters had been announced as CEO in August but did not take up the role following allegations made about her husband.

“Whilst the report recognised the commitment of all organisations to creating a safe environment, ultimately the number of recommendations demonstrates that there is a lot more work to be done, it’s not enough to be ok or good – we need to strive to be excellent in this area to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable people,” added Coates.

“Working in collaboration with the other CEOs the action plan being developed will enable us to adopt the recommendations as well as ensuring a transparency of reporting every quarter so that progress can be fully monitored across the sport.

“The first steps are under way and we will soon be recruiting the independent expertise needed to enhance the new structure and process for case management. I look forward to making the changes needed and I am fully committed to ensuring we have the very best people delivering in this area.”

Click here to download and view the executive summary document.