Rojas changes approach, enjoys hot stretch
The key to hitting home runs for Josh Rojas has been not trying to hit home runs.
Rojas entered Wednesday with a home run in four of his past five games. After getting off to a brutal start, Rojas has turned his season around with a highly productive past 13 games, a stretch in which he has gone 15 for 40 (.375) with three doubles, five homers and four walks.
“At the beginning of the year, I was trying to leave the yard with every swing and I had to tone it down a little bit and start trying to drive the ball where it’s pitched,” Rojas said. “I’ve been running into a few lately. I guess they come in bunches.”
Rojas’ year so far has been volatile. He entered camp without assurances of even a roster spot, let alone regular playing time. But he was one of the Diamondbacks’ better hitters in the Cactus League, winning a spot and looking like the odds-on favorite to get everyday atbats at second base.
Instead, he opened the year at shortstop, filling in for the injured Nick Ahmed, and struggled badly. The at-bats he had earned with his spring performance vanished and Rojas found himself playing sparingly for a week-long stretch.
“That’s how you work yourself out of a lineup is when you don’t hit and you don’t produce and you don’t put together good at-bats,” Rojas said. “That’s exactly what I was doing.”
Rojas said he studied his at-bats and swing on video and came to a conclusion: He was swinging way too often and trying too hard to hit every pitch he saw out of the park.
Quickly, his at-bats began to improve. Rojas already was finding his way into the lineup more regularly when right fielder Kole Calhoun went down last week with another leg injury.
Rojas, who came to the Diamondbacks as part of the Zack Greinke trade with a reputation for defensive versatility, moved out to the outfield and thus far has since played well on both sides of the ball. He robbed the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. of a home run last week at Chase Field.
“We had some injuries and it was my turn to get called on,” he said. “I’ve just been trying to stay within myself.”
Kelly update
Manager Torey Lovullo said he could not provide an update on right-hander Merrill Kelly’s situation — he was placed on the injured list for unspecified reasons on Tuesday — other than to say the Diamondbacks are planning for him to take the ball this weekend in New York.
“I’ll go so far as to say we expect him to make his next start,” Lovullo said.
That signals that Kelly’s injured list stint is somehow related to COVID-19. Typical injuries require stints of at least 10 days. But stays for COVID-related issues can be shorter. Some possibilities include having a bad reaction to getting vaccinated or being exposed to someone who tested positive or showed symptoms of the virus.
Lovullo said the club had not decided which day Kelly is expected to start in New York.
Stay focused
Lovullo used Daulton Varsho as a pinch-runner for Carson Kelly in the eighth inning on Tuesday night, a speedy catcher running for a slowerfooted one.
But when the bottom of the eighth began, Lovullo went back to his bench to insert Stephen Vogt behind the plate, keeping Varsho in the game in center field.