A mid-April snowstorm coats Coors Field as Dodgers-Rockies series gets off to frosty start

DENVER (AP) — Play ball! And watch out for snowballs.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies were greeted by 3 inches of snow that blanketed Coors Field as their four-game series got off to a frigid start Friday.

Dodgers pitcher Emmett Sheehan took advantage of the frosty mid-April day when he came out on the field in shorts to make a snowman about four hours before the game's scheduled first pitch.

The snow stopped about three hours before the game began and Colorado’s grounds crew, which placed a tarp over the infield to shield it from the snowfall, used a plow to clear snow from the outfield. By the first pitch, it was 35 degrees and sunny — with the only remnants of snow on the pine trees behind the wall in center field.

It was the coldest first pitch in Dodgers history.

“It was a dry cold,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said with a laugh after the game.

The bats were back out and the white stuff gave way to green grass after the shovels slugged at the snow, which came one day after the high temperature in Denver was 75 degrees.

In front of a crowd of 28,783, the Dodgers won 7-1 behind a pair of home runs from Max Muncy and a strong outing from starter Tyler Glasnow, who gave up two hits and one run in seven innings.

The start of the game didn’t mark the end of the teams’ weather-related woes. The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning for the Denver area that will be in effect from 8 p.m. locally Friday until 8 a.m. Saturday, with sub-freezing temperatures dropping down into the 18-to-24 degree range overnight.

“There was still ice on the field and it was only getting colder, but you can’t complain about it,” Muncy said. “You’ve got to go out there and they have to play through it also.”

The projected high is 57 on Saturday, according to the weather service, and 74 on Sunday before reaching 79 on Monday for the series finale.

The Dodgers come in from wrapping up a six-game homestand on Wednesday in Los Angeles, where the high was 73 on Friday.

“We were told right from the start the game was going to start on time,” Muncy said. “When you know you have to go out there and play, obviously the weather sucks, but if there’s no question of you may not play or may get delayed or you may play a doubleheader, when there’s no question of that, it’s easier to just kind of block out the noise, go out there and get ready. Today was thankfully one of those days.”

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Grounds crew members toil to clear the outfield of Coors Field after a spring storm blanketed the intermountain West with a light covering of snow before the Colorado Rockies host the Los Angeles Dodgers in a baseball game Friday, April 17, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Grounds crew members toil to clear snow from the outfield of Coors Field after a spring storm blanketed the intermountain West before the Colorado Rockies host the Los Angeles Dodgers in a baseball game Friday, April 17, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Mark Razum, head groundskeeper at Coors Field, surveys the covering of snow on the field after a spring storm blanketed the intermountain West before the Colorado Rockies host the Los Angeles Dodgers in a baseball game Friday, April 17, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

A grounds crew member clears snow from the outfield of Coors Field after a spring storm blanketed the intermountain West before the Colorado Rockies host the Los Angeles Dodgers Friday, April 17, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

As the grounds crew works around him, Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Santiago Espinal tosses a snowball at a coach while warming up to face the Colorado Rockies in a baseball game after a spring storm blanketed the intermountain West with a light covering of snow Friday, April 17, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

HAVANA (AP) — A worsening fuel crisis across Cuba is testing the island's famed “almendrones,” the vintage American cars that serve as vital shared taxis and embody the island’s ingenuity and endurance.

These days, many of the iconic gas-guzzling antique cars sit idle, casualties of fuel shortages that have gripped Cuba since January and that Cuban officials blame on a U.S. energy blockade.

Outside his modest concrete-block home on a dirt road in Las Minas, a town of about 2,000 people on the outskirts of Havana, Diriel Valdez is restoring a 1951 Chevrolet Deluxe. The burgundy body is intact and the original engine still works. Finding fuel for it, however, is another matter.

Valdez is among thousands of Cubans waiting for fuel through a government reservation app that, for many, has become a symbol of the shortages it was designed to manage.

“I signed up in February ... I’m still somewhere around number 2,800,” said the 27-year-old who runs an auto body shop from his home.

The reward for the wait would be 20 liters (5.3 gallons) of gasoline — enough fuel, Valdez says, to get him to the beach.

The name almendrón comes from the Spanish word for almond, a reference to the rounded shape of the large American sedans imported before Cuba’s 1959 revolution.

For decades, sanctions, shortages and limited imports forced Cuban mechanics to become masters of improvisation. Engines were swapped, bodies rebuilt and replacement parts sourced from wherever they could be found.

On a recent night in Havana, as another blackout darkened much of the city, taxi driver Leonardo Daniel González steered a friend’s glowing purple 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster through the darkness.

“These cars are passed down from generation to generation,” said González, 30. “I had one that belonged to my great-grandfather. It went from him to my grandfather, then to my father, and then to me.”

Cuba is experiencing one of its most severe energy crises in years. The population, already battered by decades of economic crises and shortages, is now navigating daily blackouts that can last up to 20 hours in some parts of the island.

The country produces only about 40% of the fuel it consumes and depends heavily on imports to keep its power plants running and its transportation network moving.

Since January, the Trump administration has tightened sanctions on Cuba as an element of its ongoing pressure campaign against the island’s communist government. Trump also threatened tariffs on countries that sell or transport oil to Cuba, further complicating the island’s efforts to secure fuel supplies. Just a single Russian tanker has delivered oil to the island nation since then.

Standing beside his Chevrolet in Las Minas, Valdez, who runs the auto body shop, said the fuel shortage is also affecting his livelihood. He learned auto-body work from his stepfather and has been repairing classic cars since he was 13.

“People don’t want to do major repairs anymore,” he said. “A lot of them have their cars parked. They don’t have much hope that they’ll be circulating the way they used to.”

As gasoline becomes harder to obtain, many drivers are turning to Cuba’s black market, where fuel can often be found more quickly, though at significantly higher prices that can reach up to $8 per liter ($30 per gallon).

Omar Everleny Pérez, a former economist at the University of Havana’s Center of Cuban Economic Studies, said the country’s transportation system still depends heavily on almendrones because modern vehicles remain out of reach for most Cubans.

“They’ve been vital to the transportation of ordinary Cubans,” he said. “Not only in Havana but throughout the country.”

New vehicles have become available in Cuba in recent years, but at prices far beyond the reach of most state-sector workers, Pérez said. That has helped keep the aging American cars on the road, even as a different future is beginning to emerge on Cuba’s streets.

Electric motorcycles imported from China have become increasingly common. Small electric vehicles are also appearing, aided by a growing network of solar-powered charging stations promoted by the government as part of its push toward renewable energy.

Back in Havana, González is not ready to write off the almendrones. Despite the lack of fuel and a sharp decline in tourism, he can still make a living off the old Chevrolet.

“There are ... several WhatsApp groups for us to find rides and so on,” said González. “But tourism in Cuba is in very bad shape.”

Ariel Fernández in Havana contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

FILE - Drivers wait in a long line to enter a gas station in Bacuranao near Havana, Cuba, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)

FILE - A man walks past a gas station that has run out of fuel, located near the U.S Embassy, pictured in the background, in Havana, Cuba, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)

People traverse a street in Havana, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Luis Banos)

Workers repair the sign at the Grand Aston Hotel in Havana, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)