GRAY TO RETURN VS. DIAMONDBACKS
los angeles» Right-hander Jon Gray, the Rockies’ openingday starter and hardest thrower, will return to pitch at Arizona this week, manager Bud Black said Sunday, as the club looks for an infusion of life in a struggling rotation. Gray probably will pitch Friday in the opener of a three-game series.
Gray, 25, will be pitching for the first time since suffering a broken left foot April 13 on the mound in San Francisco.
Black referenced Gray’s stamina, endurance, stuff, sharpness and competitiveness in a minorleague rehab start Saturday with Triple-A Albuquerque. Then the manager punctuated his list of positives with disquiet.
“I’m not happy with the four walks,” Black said. “Walks have been a little bothersome for me lately. We have to do something about that. I’m not a big walk guy.”
Gray struck out six, walked four and gave up a run on five hits against Sacramento. He got through five innings on 94 pitches.
“None of them were fourpitch walks. They were all hardfought counts,” Gray said.
He will pitch again after missing about 11 weeks.
“My endurance, it was like night and day,” Gray said of his final rehab start.
Anderson injured.
Lefty Tyler Anderson returned to the rotation Sunday at Dodger Stadium. But he lasted just 2L innings, yanked from the game with what he called a left hamstring cramp.
Anderson threw 55 pitches before Jordan Lyles replaced him. He will undergo tests in San Francisco on Monday, Black said. And his availability to pitch next weekend remains in doubt.
Rotation in question.
With Anderson, the Rockies are working with a six-man rotation. So Black placed rookie right-hander Antonio Senzatela in the bullpen for an emergency situation. But he did not turn to the 22year-old to replace Anderson.
“If this game went extra innings or we needed any sort of length, Senza was the guy for that,” Black said.
The Rockies, though, have an open turn in their pitching schedule Wednesday against the Giants. The day will fall to Senzatela, on an extra day of rest, or to Freeland, on regular rest.
Second baseman DJ LeMahieu spun it as a positive.
“In other years, we’d probably look around and be like, ‘Who else are we going to use? What are we going to do?’ ” he said after the Rockies’ wild 12-6 loss to the Dodgers. “But we’ve got so many guys now who can compete and be good — dominant, even — that this skid hopefully won’t last too long. We’ll definitely bounce back.”
CarGo hurting.
Right fielder Carlos Gonzalez (sore right shoulder) again was not available. He missed a third consecutive game after suffering the injury Wednesday in an at-bat, but the Rockies are trying to keep him off the disabled list. His pain improved Sunday with treatment.
“Better, not good,” he said. “But better is good.”
Footnote.
Gerardo Parra will have an ultrasound on his strained right thigh muscle Monday in San Francisco. If it checks out well, he will fly to Denver for an MRI, a test that will indicate his readiness for a rehab assignment, he said. Parra, though, estimated his leg’s health at about 70 percent.