This morning, Ken Rosenthal and Chandler Rome reported that the Colorado Rockies will meet the Houston Astros in Mexico City next year.
The Astros and Rockies will play in next year’s regular-season series in Mexico, tentatively scheduled again for Mexico City, sources tell me and @Chandler_Rome.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 1, 2023
These will be the second non-exhibition games played in Mexico City. The San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres played the first games over the weekend at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú. Some 20,000 enthusiastic fans attended, and the atmosphere was celebratory.
Mexico City’s elevation is 7349 feet, putting the Rockies’ familiar 5280 to shame. It also resulted in a Coors-on-steroids series that saw home runs to rival Coors’ pre-humidor days. The series humidor was set for sea-level baseball.
I learned after the game that the humidor here is NOT set at Colorado levels or lower. It’s set at the same 70 degrees and 57 percent humidity as the 29 not-Colorado parks. “That’s a joke,” one member of the Giants traveling party said.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) April 30, 2023
In Game 1, ten players homered with the Padres winning 16-11. The Padres also won Game 2, a more sedate affair, 6-4. In total, players hit a combined 15 home runs during the two-game series.
The series was also a lot of fun that included swag like this:
Diggin’ the Lucha Libre look ✌️
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 29, 2023
Shoutout to Brandon Moreno and Rey Mysterio for the #MexicoCitySeries gear! pic.twitter.com/cYqtp4zBPT
Who doesn’t want one of those in purple?
Beyond the festivities, the series creates an opportunity for the Rockies to experience playing baseball at next-level elevation. From a purely scientific standpoint, how will the players adapt to playing there, and will it give them an advantage over the Astros? We’re going to find out.
Given that Team Mexico made a deep run in the World Baseball Classic, interest in the sport is high, so a second series makes sense, especially as MLB prepares to add expansion teams to the league.
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