LOS ANGELES — Carlos Gonzalez, a walking, talking toolshed of talent, has no business hitting .228 with one home run over the course of a month. But he did it, all right, in April, the earliest moments of a season filled with good times and bad.
He got warm in May (.282 with seven homers), hot in June (.349, four) and hurt in July, when he came perilously close to fracturing his right wrist while scaling the center-field wall at Coors Field.
And now, after all the calamity, CarGo is getting even.
“Making up for lost time,” Gonzalez said.
CarGo had four hits and two RBIs on Saturday, extending to 11 his franchise-record streak of games with at least one RBI. He had been tied at 10 with Vinny Castilla. Gonzalez also is riding a season-best 14-game hitting streak, during which he has hit eight homers and driven in an astounding 25 runs. His 30 RBIs this month lead the majors.
The key factors behind his latest hot stretch? There’s one that transcends all the others. It’s called a clean bill of health. His wrist is finally healthy after a cortisone shot during the all- star break followed by a stint on the 15-day disabled list.
“I tried to come back, but I knew I wasn’t ready,” Gonzalez said. “It felt just good enough to make some swings, but not like I wanted to. But right now I feel really good. I’m swinging the bat the way I want to.”
Said Troy Tulowitzki: “Any time you have a player of his caliber on a streak like he’s on, he can carry a team. That’s what superstars do, and he’s one of them. I just think he’s healthy for the first time since maybe the beginning of the year. I knew, once he got healthy, you’d look up at the end of the year and the numbers would be there.”
Footnotes. Saturday’s loss dropped the Rockies below .500 (12-13) in August. They’re 46-62 since their 17-8 April. . . . The Rockies have caught one break in L.A. They won’t have to face lefty Clayton Kershaw, who is 9-1 with a 1.88 ERA at Dodger Stadium. . . . Lefty Drew Pomeranz, the centerpiece of the Ubaldo Jimenez trade, played catch Saturday and has a 25-pitch bullpen session scheduled for Monday. Pomeranz, who recently underwent an appendectomy, is hoping to be able to pitch again this season. . . . Rockies manager Jim Tracy on Saturday’s 4-hour, 39-minute game: “If we had executed a little bit, we’d have been done about an hour-and-a-half ago.”
