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)

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer probably wishes he had never heard the name Peter Mandelson.

Starmer is again facing questions over his future. And again, it’s do with his misguided decision to appoint a self-professed “best pal” of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to the plummiest of plum jobs in U.K. diplomacy — that of ambassador to the United States.

Two months ago when he was last imperiled over the appointment in late 2024, it was his judgment that was in question. Enough for some in his Labour Party, including its leader in Scotland, to urge him to stand down.

Now, he’s facing accusations that he misled Parliament over how Mandelson cleared the official hurdles to get the job in the first place.

If he’s found to have done so, he will be on very thin ice, not least because Starmer put integrity at the heart of his pitch to the British electorate at the July 2024 election to replace the scandal-plagued Conservatives.

“Starmer set himself up as the guy who always followed the rules, in stark contrast to, say, Boris Johnson, and he came to power effectively promising to ‘drain the swamp’,” said Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University of London.

“Because of that, the latest revelations in the unholy mess created by his ill-judged appointment of Peter Mandelson mean that many voters now see him not only as a liar but as a hypocrite — and hypocrisy is one of the worst sins that any British politician can possibly commit,” he added.

On Thursday, The Guardian newspaper revealed that Mandelson was initially denied security clearance for the post he was eventually fired from nine months later. This is a problem for Starmer as he told Parliament that “full due process” was observed.

The government stressed that Starmer and other ministers only found out earlier this week that the Foreign Office made a different overall assessment. The fallout has already led to the resignation of the Foreign Office’s top civil servant, Olly Robbins.

Starmer is trying to fend off questions about what he did or didn’t know about the vetting process, which would have involved an assessment of Mandelson’s suitability for the role in light of questions over his finances, his relationships, including that with Epstein, and his personality.

Starmer is also facing accusations over whether he had effectively given direction to officials to sidestep concerns over the 72-year-old Mandelson.

Starmer said he is “absolutely furious” that he had been kept in the dark, calling it “staggering” and “unforgivable.” He will make a statement to Parliament on Monday.

For all Starmer's dire personal ratings and the anticipated heavy electoral defeats for Labour in a raft of elections in May, the frenzy around his leadership had died down. His decision to not get the U.K. directly involved in the war in Iran chimed with the public mood.

Mandelson was a high-risk appointment, given he had twice resigned from Labour governments for financial or ethical missteps around the turn of the century, and his acquaintance with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.

The calculation seemingly made by Starmer was clear: the risk was worth it as Mandelson’s lobbying skills and previous trade expertise would help persuade the Trump administration to spare the U.K. from some of the most onerous tariffs.

That appeared to work but by September 2025, the narrative changed after the release of emails that showed that Mandelson had supported Epstein even when he was facing jail for sex offenses. Though uncomfortable, Starmer hoped his decision to fire Mandelson would settle the matter.

However, the release of millions of pages of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Justice Department in January put an end to that. Starmer’s political judgment was questioned after emails in the so-called Epstein Files suggested that when Mandelson was a member of the Labour government, in 2009-2010, he had passed on sensitive — and potentially market-moving — government information to the disgraced financier.

Starmer has repeatedly apologized to the British public and to the victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking for believing what he has termed “Mandelson’s lies.”

British police subsequently launched a criminal probe, searched Mandelson’s two houses in London and western England. Mandelson was arrested on Feb. 23 on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was released on bail the following morning after more than nine hours of questioning. He has denied any wrongdoing and does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

Starmer would have hoped that his cool head in the crisis around Iran would keep a lid on any leadership speculation, even in the event of his party’s anticipated drubbing in the May elections, Britain’s equivalent of the U.S. midterms.

That’s wishful thinking.

“This scandal is not ending,” said Kemi Badenoch, leader of the main opposition Conservative Party. “He has run out of people to sack, he has run out of places to hide, he has run out of authority. The buck stops with him. His position is untenable and he must go.”

The real focus is on what Labour lawmakers think.

On Monday, Starmer will gauge the mood, when he makes his statement. So far, few in his party have said he should go. Should anymore Labour lawmakers put their heads above the parapet following a weekend of campaigning in their local electoral patches, he may be in real trouble.

Confidence in a leader can evaporate in an instant. Just ask Boris Johnson, who was elected with a thumping majority in 2019 and resigned both as prime minister and as a lawmaker three years later, after a string of scandals.

FILE - This March 28, 2017, photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

Peter Mandelson is seen outside his home in London, Friday, April 17, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves after the multinational virtual summit and press conference at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, Friday April 17, 2026 (Tom Nicholson/Pool Photo via AP)