DENVER – In what was once a bizarre season-opening series, even for Coors Field, another strange move came in the Dodgers’ 6-5 victory Saturday night over the Rocky Mountains.
At the beginning of the eighth round, with the score tied at 4-4, hitter Zach McKinstry hit a shot to the bottom of the left field, where Raimel Tapia made a jump attempt and hit the wall. His glove deflected the ball from going over the wall, and it fell into fair territory and rolled towards the left corner of the field. Tapia, who was injured, fell on the alert lane, but somehow had the presence of mind to get up and go after the baseball.
But by the time he managed to get close to him, Mckinstry had already covered the bases for a home run inside the park, the first home run of his career in the Major League. Tapia left the game on her own and it was unclear what the injury was or the severity.
All of this happened two days after Cody Bellinger threw a ball over Tapia’s head and over the left field wall, but ended up with a single after being called in for passing Justin Turner on the base paths. Turner thought the ball had been caught, as Tapia made a jump almost identical to his jump on Saturday night, and Turner went back to the first when Bellinger went around the bag.
Then, on the opening day, the Dodgers hit a home run that didn’t go, and two days later, they hit a home run that didn’t go any further. Oh, and a cat ran into the field in Game 2 of the series on Friday night.
Mckinstry probably dreamed of what his first Major League home run would look like, especially since his debut in the MLB by the Dodgers in September last year. He could never have imagined the sequence that happened on Saturday.
But when you’re at Coors Field, you never know what’s going to happen.