Here’s hoping trainers Keith Dugger and Scott Gehret are getting paid overtime, because the Rockies’ injury bug has turned into an epidemic.
Not that it’s slowed down baseball’s hottest team.
The Rockies shook off a third-inning injury to starter Jose Contreras, erupted for five runs in the bottom of the frame and received a superb effort from their bullpen to beat the Reds, 5-1, Thursday afternoon at Coors Field, completing a four-game sweep and a 9-1 homestand.
Colorado has won seven consecutive games to put itself into comfortable position in the National League wild-card race and put pressure on NL West leading Los Angeles. The Rockies moved within two games of the Dodgers in West and extended their league over San Francisco in the wild-card race to 4-1/2 games.
Contreras, who coughed a run in the first inning, left the game after pulling up lame near first base as he tried to leg out a grounder to short in the third. He has a right quadriceps strain.
“It didn’t hurt, more like a cramp,” he said.
He will be reevaluated Friday.
“I will have to see how I feel and see what the doctors say,” he said.
As the Rockies head out for a crucial 10-day, nine-game road trip beginning Friday night in San Diego, their rotation is in flux.
Ace Ubaldo Jimenez’s tweaked left hamstring is much better. If pressed, he could make Saturday’s scheduled start in San Diego but the Rockies are being cautious and will push Jimenez back, probably to a Tuesday start in San Francisco. Esmil Rogers, a 24-year-old right-hander, will start Saturday against the Padres in his major-league debut.
Contreras, 37, was replaced in the fourth inning Thursday by 21-year-old prospect Jhoulys Chacin. All told, the Rockies used three relievers – Chacin, Juan Rincon and Matt Belisle. The trio allowed no runs and just three hits over six innings.
Contreras, acquired in a trade from the White Sox on Aug. 31, was making just his second start with the Rockies. He was brought in to stabilize the rotation after opening-day starter Aaron Cook went down with a strained right shoulder.
Cook is likely out for another 10 days to two weeks. If Contreras’s injury is serious enough to keep him from making his next start, the Rockies will need a replacement. It won’t be Chacin, manager Jim Tracy said after the game, citing Chacin’s lack of fastball command.
The Rockies’ lone offensive outburst came with two outs. Eric Young Jr. reached on a bunt single and stole second. Carlos Gonzalez walked. Then sizzling Seth Smith roped a single to right, scoring Young. Up stepped 38-year-old Jason Giambi. Tabbed before the game as “The Gladiator” by manager Jim Tracy, Giambi doubled over the head of Reds center fielder Drew Stubbs, who stumbled going back for the ball, driving home Gonzalez and Smith. Garrett Atkins then did something he hadn’t done at Coors Field since April 25 – hit a home run. His two-run no-doubter into the left-field bleachers came off former Rockies starter Kip Wells.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
