Rockies, Phillies take a powder

DENVER —  The snow in Colorado scrapped plans for Pedro Martinez’s first postseason start in five years.

Game 3 of the Philadelphia-Colorado playoff series was postponed a day because of weather Saturday better suited for cross-country skiing. That prompted a pitching switch by the Phillies, with left-hander J.A. Happ going to the mound tonight instead of the 37-year-old Martinez. The Rockies are sticking with Jason Hammel.

The Phillies holed up in their hotel Saturday with no plans of working out at the ballpark.

The Rockies summoned their players for a 90-minute workout inside Coors Field.

“We just want to keep ourselves on somewhat of a schedule,” Manager Jim Tracy said.

Tracy suspected this might not be a night for baseball when even his dogs wanted to skip their morning walk. Major League Baseball agreed with Tracy’s beagles, pushing back Game 3 of this NL division series to tonight and Game 4 to Monday.

The series is tied at one game each. Game 5, if necessary, will be played as scheduled Tuesday in Philadelphia, without a day off for travel.

“I think it’s a very wise decision,” Tracy told the Associated Press by phone. “You could have something happen in weather like this where you could lose a player for half a year in 2010. I don’t think that would be good for anybody.

“There’s no question about the type of play that you would see in this kind of weather versus if you have better conditions that they’re calling for Sunday. To be cold and wet and rainy and sleety or snowy is completely different than cold and dry and clear.”

Surely any dog would know that. Well, at least Tracy’s.

“We got up to take the dogs for a walk and when two beagles don’t want to go outside, I don’t see how baseball players would see this as a real good day to be playing,” he said. “It was snowing and 18 degrees, not very conducive for baseball.”

With the day off Saturday, both teams could go back to Game 1 starters on Monday, Ubaldo Jimenez for Colorado and Cliff Lee for Philadelphia.

Happ, a rookie, said Friday that he felt better after being knocked out of Game 1.

He had entered in relief and took a hard liner off his left leg in the seventh inning.

Before the weather changed things, Martinez was set to make his first postseason start since he won Game 3 for Boston at St. Louis in the 2004 World Series.