SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Ian Stewart, your basic baseball lifer from his earliest years, was talking Monday about his football career that wasn’t.
“I never could have been a football player,” Stewart said. “It’s not my personality to be that aggressive.”
You could have fooled Carlos Gonzalez.
Stewart walked away from Saturday’s close encounter with CarGo with a sprained right medial collateral ligament that will sideline him for a week. But it wasn’t like Gonzalez, who slid at the last second to avoid a train wreck as the two chased a pop fly, walked away unscathed.
“I thought I got hit by a bus,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez suffered a bruised right shin and a sprained left ankle. Neither was considered serious, but Gonzalez sat out Monday’s Cactus League game against Arizona at Salt River Fields. He’ll return to action today against the Diamondbacks.
Chacin the machine.
Jhoulys Chacin breezed through two scoreless innings against the D-backs, working mainly on his fastball and sinker. Chacin has an entirely different outlook this spring after earning a spot in the rotation.
“It helps me be more relaxed,” Chacin said. “You keep working hard and trying to not give up too many runs, but you pitch more relaxed.”
Said Rockies manager Jim Tracy: “He has a chance to be special. He knows how to win, I firmly believe that. I think you just need to leave this kid alone.”
Easy Street.
Huston Street allowed a run in one inning of work but said he “felt good about the way the ball was coming out of my hand.”
Tracy on Street, who has spent much of his time in camp trying to rediscover his sinking changeup: “(He was throwing) free and easy and clean. Obviously it’s his first time out and he’s an artist. You have to give an artist a little bit of time and make sure all the bristles on his brush are right where they need to be.”
Footnotes.
Rockies hitting instructor Carney Lansford has done considerable video work with the players in an attempt to improve their two-strike approach. The early results have been encouraging, with the Rockies striking out six times through two games. . . . Utility man Jonathan Herrera has four hits in five at-bats through two games, including a first-inning triple Monday. . . . Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd, on minor-league center fielder Charlie Blackmon, who won the Cactus League opener with a home run: “We like him a lot. He’s very athletic and he can hit. He’s got the hitting gene.”
