Hail storm sends Padres and Rockies running for cover
Much like Colorado Rockies baseball, you never know what to expect from the weather in Denver. That’s especially true in September, when conditions can change at a moment’s notice and shift from one extreme to the other in a matter of hours.
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Look no further than Friday’s Padres-Rockies game for evidence. The weather map indicated conditions were going to get wet around the ninth inning. However, when the skies finally opened up, it wasn’t a harmless rain shower that soaked the field. It was a hard-hitting hail storm accompanied by thunder and lightning.
While players and coaches for both teams ran for cover, the grounds crew ventured into the storm to apply the tarp.
In the realm of thankless occupations, grounds crew member has to rank pretty high. No one would know that better than Padres pitcher Jake Smith, who once served as the groundskeeper for the Augusta GreenJackets, the Giants’ Class A affiliate, before he was given a tryout and then drafted by San Francisco in the 48th round in 2011. He picked up his first MLB win against the Giants earlier this week.
His services were not needed here, but the chaos created by Mother Nature was still pretty crazy.
A photo posted by Marla Keown (@camrafem) on Sep 16, 2016 at 8:47pm PDT
Gerardo Parra does not like hail. #Rockies pic.twitter.com/wZ5CkvPACA
— Mark Haas (@markhaastv) September 17, 2016
Hail! #denver #colorado #rockies☄????⚾️????????#video pic.twitter.com/huXKBmXLwT
— Adrian Arambulo (@AdrianNBCLA) September 17, 2016
Once the hail stopped, baseball resumed. The Rockies provided all of the thunder at that point, scoring three runs in the ninth inning to pull off an 8-7 win.
#RallyHail probably won’t catch on, but the Rockies will take a win any way they can get one.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!