The New York Mets and Colorado Rockies opened a three-game series in Denver on Monday, and it might be the only game the teams get in this week.
Freddy Peralta (1-3, 3.52 ERA) is scheduled to start for New York against fellow right-hander Michael Lorenzen (2-3, 6.09) on Tuesday night in a rematch from Colorado’s 4-3 road win on April 24.
The Mets overcame five no-hit innings from Tomoyuki Sugano to win the series opener 4-2 on Monday, getting four runs on three hits against him in the sixth inning.
However, Tuesday’s game is in jeopardy of postponement.
With inclement weather expected Monday night, the game was moved up by three hours to start at 3:40 local time. The rest of the series is in jeopardy, however. The area is under a winter storm warning from 8 p.m. Tuesday through 3 p.m. Wednesday. Up to eight inches of snow is expected, with more near the foothills.
The teams have battled each other and the Colorado weather several times. In 2013, when the Mets visited in mid-April, the Denver metro area got close to 10 inches of snow, postponing their game on April 15. The grounds crew, with the help of Rockies owner Dick Monfort and others from the front office, shoveled the field the next day so the teams could play a doubleheader.
Eight years later to the day, 6.9 inches of snow hit Denver, postponing the first game and forcing another doubleheader, and a snowstorm in late May 2022 led to another postponement.
The teams also had to play a doubleheader in New York last week after rain washed out the middle game of the series.
“I think it’s just Denver weather shows up,” Colorado manager Warren Schaeffer said. “Sorry they have to be here when that happens. We have to deal with it, too.”
Should Peralta take the mound Tuesday night, he will make his 10th appearance and ninth start against the Rockies. He is 4-3 with a 3.45 ERA in his career against them after allowing two runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings in the April 24 game. Peralta was charged with the loss.
Lorenzen, who got the victory in that game with seven innings of one-run ball in New York, has faced the Mets 17 times in his career, and five of those were starts. He is 3-1 with a 2.42 ERA and two saves in those outings.
If Lorenzen gets to pitch, the first batter he’ll likely see is Juan Soto, who was moved to the leadoff spot for the series opener. The slugger, who went 0-for-3 with a walk and run scored Monday, is batting .301 with three home runs on his injury-impacted season. New York has struggled to put runners on the bases in front of him when he hits in the middle of the lineup.
Manager Carlos Mendoza said he wasn’t putting a timeline on how long he’ll keep Soto at the top of the order.
“I tried with Juan at No. 2 or 3, trying to create traffic in front of him” Mendoza said. “We were having a hard time doing that. So just decided to go the other way, just getting him as many at bats as possible, trying to get him on base and let the other guys drive him in.”
–Field Level Media
