SAN DIEGO – It was a rare summer day in San Diego – a Padres game was rained out.
In the first washout at Petco Park since 2006, the Colorado Rockies and Padres were postponed Sunday.
The Rockies led 1-0 in the top of the fifth inning when play was stopped. It was called after a wait of 2½ hours.
Petco Park opened in 2004 and the only previous rainout came two years later.
“With the forecast of rain coming and how much water the field took, the outfield warning track and all that kind of stuff, they didn’t want to restart for the possibility of playing for a half hour,” Padres manager Pat Murphy said.
The game will start fresh on Sept. 10, a mutual off day for both teams. The Rockies are in San Diego for three games leading up to Sept. 10.
The Padres, who played at Qualcomm Stadium before Petco Park was built, had never had a home rainout in July in franchise history.
“We invented it,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said.”We’ve been making it rain all year. I don’t think I’ve ever seen rain in San Diego. This is strange.”
Sunday marked just the sixth rain delay at Petco; another game was compromised by a swarm of bees.
It was the Padres’ second rain delay of the season, but they resumed play on May 14 against the Washington Nationals.
The Rockies led thanks to an unearned run in the second inning when Nick Hundley drove in Nolan Arenado.
Matt Kemp doubled twice for the Padres, but those stats were wiped out.
San Diego outfielder Justin Upton was removed in the fifth inning with a sore left oblique. Murphy said Upton was day-to-day.
“I don’t anticipate DL, I really don’t,” Murphy said.
The Padres had gone 820 games between home rainouts, the last one on April 4, 2006, against the San Francisco Giants.
