DETROIT -- Like the Red Sox aren’t immune to the flu, they’re not immune to rampant flight cancellations that have stranded travelers around the country this weekend. Those cancellations forced Boston to play without shortstop Xander Bogaerts for a day longer than the three-day minimum for bereavement leave; Bogaerts instead will rejoin the Red Sox in Boston for Tuesday’s game at Fenway Park.

"He’s been a victim of the backup in the system," Red Sox manager John Farrell said.

Detroit is the second-largest hub for Delta Airlines, and so it was only natural that the Red Sox would book Bogaerts -- as they had Mookie Betts, who had stayed back in Boston with the flu -- on a Delta flight out of Oranjestad, Aruba. But the flight Bogaerts was on Sunday afternoon was one of more than 100 flights Delta had to cancel thanks to a shortage of pilots and planes -- a shortage stemming from the 3,000 flights canceled on Thursday, Friday and Saturday thanks to storms passing through Atlanta, Delta’s largest hub. Bogaerts spent two hours on the runway, Farrell said, before his flight was canceled.

One of those 3,000 flights canceled over the weekend was the flight Betts had been on from Boston to Detroit on Saturday morning, the first day his flu symptoms had subsided enough that he could travel. What the Red Sox did in that case was charter a plane to get Betts to Detroit -- a minor expense in the context of a team with a payroll pushing $200 million.

But the logistics were prohibitively complicated to do the same to get Bogaerts from Aruba to Detroit in time for Monday’s day game, especially by the time Delta canceled Bogaerts’s flight on Sunday evening. The turnaround was too short. Bogaerts instead was scheduled to travel straight to Boston.

Speaking of the flu, even those who aren’t with the Red Sox have been hit. A flu that first arose while the Red Sox were still in Fort Myers is still sweeping through those who have stayed back in Fort Myers -- including reliever Tyler Thornburg, whose scheduled shoulder evaluation was pushed back due to a bout with a flu the Red Sox just can’t shake.