PHOENIX—The Arizona Diamondbacks wore black jerseys in Game 2 of the NL championship series Friday night, which forced the streaking Colorado Rockies into a different color.
The Rockies had won seven straight games in black tops, including the series opener Thursday night. This time, they donned their gray uniforms with pinstripes, the same ones they wore on a franchise-best 6-0 trip through Southern California in late September.
Baseball teams and players are often superstitious about clothing, routines—just about anything. Was this a bit of playoff gamesmanship by Arizona?
If so, the Diamondbacks weren’t letting on.
“We as an organization decided to wear the black tops tonight. We ordinarily wear them on Saturdays, but have not had a home playoff game on a Saturday yet,” team president Derrick Hall said. “Our fans enjoy the black alternate and we have played well in them.”
Arizona was 11-2 in black this season.
Before the game, manager Bob Melvin was asked about his team wearing black, and said he was unaware of it.
“We wear the black jerseys once a week—tonight seemed to make sense as we hadn’t worn them yet this postseason,” Diamondbacks general partner Jeff Moorad said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
Colorado spokesman Jay Alves insisted the Rockies don’t care one way or another.
“It’s the same guys in the jerseys, no matter what color,” he said. “Tonight the Diamondbacks chose black, so we went with gray.”
