Interim manager Sandy Alomar Jr., the team’s first base coach, will continue to fill in for Francona.

Francona recently said he’ll try to manage games whenever he can, but last week president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said the team has been encouraging him to take as long as needed before coming back.

The Indians had hoped Francona would return to the dugout at the start of this six-game homestand, but he missed the weekend series against Detroit.

Francona has been with the Indians for eight seasons. The two-time World Series winner with the Red Sox is signed through the 2022 season.

Mets get clean bill of health

The New York Mets have come up clean since two positive COVID-19 cases in the organization last week, clearing the way for the team to continue its season.

The Mets worked out at Citi Field on Monday and will return to action Tuesday with a doubleheader against the Miami Marlins in New York, according to a statement from Major League Baseball.

Tuesday’s doubleheader will make up for last Thursday’s postponed game in Miami — the Marlins will serve as the home team in the second game despite playing in New York. Doubleheaders during the 2020 season have been condensed to seven-inning games in the interest of player health and safety.

The Mets will start to make up part of the three-game series missed against the Yankees over the weekend with doubleheaders scheduled for Friday and Sunday, with a game in between on Saturday, all of which will be at Yankee Stadium.

As it stands now, the Mets are scheduled to play nine games over the next six days.

The final regular season game against the two New York rivals will be made up at Citi Field on Sept. 3.

Grichuk powers Blue Jays

Randal Grichuk hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the host Tampa Bay Rays, 6-4. Reliever Aaron Loup (3-2) replaced Edgar García with one on and one out. After Cavan Biggio reached on catcher’s interference, Grichuk gave Toronto a 5-3 lead with his seventh home run.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. also homered for the Blue Jays, and Thomas Hatch (2-1) worked two scoreless innings for the win. He got his first big league victory in Friday’s game against the Rays.

Jordan Romano worked the ninth for his second save. The righthander got his first career save preserving Hatch’s win on Friday.

Yoshi Tsutsugo and Willy Adames homered for Tampa Bay. Oft-injured Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier was hit on the right foot by a pitch in the sixth and left after the seventh.

Blue Jays acquired struggling slugger Daniel Vogelbach from the Mariners for $100,000 on Sunday night. The 27-year-old Vogelbach was a first time All-Star last season but was designated for assignment by the Mariners Aug. 19 after hitting .094 with two home runs and four RBIs in 18 games this season. He had yet to play a game in the field this season at first base and was reduced to being a designated hitter.

A year ago, Vogelbach had a strong first half to the season, hitting 21 home runs and driving in 51 runs before the All-Star break. But the league adjusted after his All-Star Game appearance and Vogelbach hit just .162 with nine home runs over the final 2½ months of the season.

Teams to dodge rain

Houston’s game against the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday has been moved to Tuesday and will be played as part of a doubleheader because of Tropical Storm Laura. The Astros were supposed to wrap up a four-game series with the Angels on Thursday afternoon. Instead, they will play a doubleheader starting at 4:05 p.m. on Tuesday. Laura could make landfall on the Gulf Coast late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. Wednesday’s game, which was scheduled to start at 9:10 p.m., was moved up to 1:10 p.m because of the impending storm . . . The board of directors of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum voted unanimously to reschedule this winter’s two Era Committee elections because of concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark said the Era Committee process requires in-person dialogue involving the members of the 16-person voting committee. In view of those concerns, she said the board decided that the Golden Days Committee and the Early Days Committee will instead meet during the winter of 2021. The Golden Days Era Committee considers Hall of Fame candidates whose primary contributions to the game came from 1950 to 1969, and the Early Baseball Era Committee considers candidates whose primary contributions came prior to 1950. Each committee will consider a ballot of 10 candidates compiled by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Historical Overview Committee, and those candidates will be announced in autumn 2021. Both committees will consider the ballots later that year and anybody elected will be enshrined in 2022.