San Francisco – Jamey Carroll’s locker in the visitors’ clubhouse at AT&T Park is right next to Todd Helton’s.
Helton was hitting .385 entering Wednesday night’s game, Carroll just .169.
“I thought about coming in early today, putting his shirt on and holding his bats,” Carroll said. “Maybe his hits will rub off on me.”
Carroll was only half-kidding. After posting a career-high .300 average last season as the Rockies’ starting second baseman, he entered Wednesday stuck in the worst slump of his career, with just four hits in his previous 47 at-bats.
“I think it’s been since high school since I’ve been through something like this,” Carroll said.
With Kaz Matsui on the disabled list with back spasms, the Rockies need Carroll to escape his funk. That’s why Carroll was back in the starting lineup Wednesday after sitting out Tuesday in favor of Omar Quintanilla.
“This is an effort to get Carroll back in and get involved,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “The struggles he and (Jeff) Baker have had are well documented. We have to find a way to help them get out of it, because we need everybody helping us.”
There is no doubt Carroll is mystified. He has worked overtime in the batting cage and spent hours looking at videotape, trying to spot flaws. At first he was trying to hit the ball too far out in front. Then he was letting the pitch get in too deep on him.
“I feel good up there, but all of a sudden I’ll pop the ball in the air to right field,” he said. “It’s weird, because I’m seeing the ball well and I’m not swinging at pitches in the dirt.”
Carroll acknowledged that he’s pressing, “trying to get three hits with one at-bat.”
“I think you get to a certain point where it gets to be a mental thing when you know you’re not helping the ballclub,” he said. “You start to feel like you’ve got the plague and you’re not involved anymore. So right now, I’m just trying to quit pressing and keep things simple.”
Footnotes
The Rockies are off today before playing at Cincinnati on Friday. The off day means Taylor Buchholz will be skipped in the rotation and Jeff Francis will start Monday’s game at St. Louis. … Reds manager Jerry Narron will miss Friday’s game to attend his daughter Caitlin’s graduation from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. It’s the second straight year he will miss a game for a daughter’s graduation. Last year, he went home to Goldsboro, N.C., in June when his daughter, Clare, graduated from Rosewood High School.
