Cats, home runs, and fountain delays at Coors Field: ‘Things happen here’

This series between the Dodgers and Rockies at Coors Field has seen just about everything, and it’s not even over yet.

“You gotta keep locked in and stay focused,” said Zach McKinstry. “It’s been a weird series, with the cat last night and the home run taken away from [Bellinger], then tonight with the waterfalls in center field, and the inside-the-park home run. It’s very eventful.”

McKinstry was the one who hit the inside-the-park home run on Saturday, the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of the Dodgers’ 6-5 win. But that wasn’t the only time everyone was stopped in their tracks.

In the top of the seventh inning, with the Dodgers up 3-2, Gavin Lux was set to lead off. Beyond the center field wall there are fountains that are usually only activated between innings. But this time, they stayed on.

“It was kind of in the way of the hitter, right below the hitter’s eye,” Dave Roberts said. “So I asked them to stop it, and it took a little bit longer than expected.”

Once play resumed after a few minutes, Lux tripled and scored on a single by Corey Seager, who has eight hits in his first 12 at-bats this season.

“You expect the unexpected, so I guess that’s what we should expect in the fourth game of the series,” Roberts said. “When you play here, this is kind of what happens. I mean, not necessarily cats, but things happen here.”

Links & notes

• Lux has triples in each of the last two games, the first Dodger to do so since Chris Taylor on June 1-2, 2018, also at Coors Field.
• Roberts, a UCLA grad, was asked about the Bruins’ heartbreaking Final Four loss to Gonzaga, won in overtime by a Jalen Suggs bank shot from near midcourt at the buzzer in overtime. “From what I understand, you’ve got to call bank shots,” Roberts said with a smile, “But I guess in the tournament, those still count.”
• More on Kenley Jansen’s five-out save from Juan Toribio at MLB.com.
• MLB players and traveling personnel aren’t as limited on road trips this year as they were last year, with health and safety protocols allowing them to leave the team hotel to pick up food, walk around, and other approved activities. J.P. Hoornstra at the Orange County Register wrote about a few Dodgers experiences on this first road trip of the season.