Eight Inches of Snow and a Three-Game Series on the Brink: What's Actually Happening in Denver Right Now

The New York Mets and Colorado Rockies opened their series in Denver on Monday, but Mother Nature might have other plans. A winter storm warning is locked in for the area from 8 p.m. Tuesday through 3 p.m. Wednesday, with up to eight inches of snow expected to fall. The rest of this series is genuinely in jeopardy.

Tuesday's game between Freddy Peralta and Michael Lorenzen already got bumped up three hours to start at 3:40 local time because of bad weather rolling in Monday night. That's not a casual schedule change. That's a desperation move. The Mets won the opener 4-2 on Monday after Tomoyuki Sugano kept them hitless for five innings, but they exploded for four runs on just three hits in the sixth. Now they're trying to hold serve before the storm potentially shuts everything down.

Denver Weather Has Done This Before, and It Got Messy

This isn't the first time the Mets have gotten caught in a Colorado snowstorm. Back in 2013, the Denver metro area dumped nearly 10 inches of snow in mid-April, forcing a postponement on April 15. The Rockies owner Dick Monfort and the grounds crew had to shovel the field by hand so they could play a doubleheader the next day. Fast forward eight years to the day, and 6.9 inches hit Denver again, postponing the first game and forcing another doubleheader. A late May snowstorm in 2022 also forced another postponement. The teams even had to grind through a doubleheader in New York last week after rain washed out a game in the middle of their series.

Colorado manager Warren Schaeffer kept it real about it: "I think it's just Denver weather shows up. Sorry they have to be here when that happens. We have to deal with it, too."

If They Play: Peralta and Lorenzen's Head-to-Head History

Should Tuesday's game actually happen, Peralta is 4-3 with a 3.45 ERA against the Rockies in his career and will be making his 10th appearance and ninth start against them. He took the loss on April 24 when these teams last faced off, giving up two runs on seven hits over 5 2/3 innings. Lorenzen got the win that day with seven innings of one-run ball in New York and is 3-1 with a 2.42 ERA in starts against the Mets across his 17 total matchups against them, including two saves.

The Mets moved Juan Soto to the leadoff spot for the series opener after struggling to get runners on base in front of him in the middle of the lineup. Soto went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored Monday and is batting .301 with three home runs on the season. Manager Carlos Mendoza isn't committing to anything long term: "I tried with Juan at No. 2 or 3, trying to create traffic in front of him. 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."

The question now is whether Tuesday night's game happens at all. Check the forecast before you make your plans.

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.