DENVER – In what was already a bizarre season opening, even for Coors Field, another strange game took place on Saturday night in the Dodgers’ 6-5 victory over the Rockies.
In the top of the eighth inning, tied for 4-4, pinch-hitter Zach McKinstry drove to deep left field, where Raimel Tapia jumped and crashed into the wall. His glove kept the ball from going over the wall and he landed in good territory and rolled to the left corner of the field. Tapia, who had been injured, had fallen on the warning trail, but somehow had the presence of mind to get up and go after baseball.
But by the time he got close, Mckinstry had circled the bases for an inside-the-park homerun, the first homer of his Major League-career. Tapia left the game on his own and it was not immediately clear what his injury was, nor how serious it was.
All of this came two days after Cody Bellinger launched a ball over Tapia’s head and over the left field wall, but ended with a single after being called out for passing Justin Turner on the base paths. Turner thought the ball had been caught as Tapia made a jump almost identical to his Saturday night jump, and Turner went back to first place when Bellinger walked around the sack.
So on opening day, the Dodgers hit a homerun that wasn’t, and two days later, they hit a homerun that didn’t go over the wall. Oh, and a cat ran onto the field on Friday night in Game 2 of the series.
Mckinstry has probably been dreaming about what his first Major League-homer would look like, especially since he made his MLB debut for the Dodgers last September. He could never have imagined the sequence that took place on Saturday.
But when you’re at Coors Field, you never know what will happen.