News and notes
Arizona Diamondbacks
Hinted at a few times before,
Taijuan Walker’s return is penciled in for this week.
A finger blister has sidelined Walker, 24, since his outing May 19, when he shut out the Padres in San Diego for six innings on 90 pitches.
The hiatus wasn’t necessarily a significant setback, provided Walker regains his form soon. The right-hander had worked 52 innings, putting him on a careerhigh pace.
He logged 1341⁄3 innings last year, after a career-high 1692⁄e inning season in 2015.
A newcomer to Arizona, the former Seattle Mariners firstround supplemental selection has a 4-3 record and a 3.46 ERA and has been much improved at preventing home runs despite Arizona’s thin, hot air.
His home rate of 0.7 per nine innings is nearly half his career rate, and he hasn’t allowed more than one homer in his nine starts.
Randall Delgado and Zack Godley are candidates to move to the bullpen, opening a spot for Walker.
Along with his customarily good defense, shortstop Nick Ahmed was hitting 40 points above his career batting average of .228 through Sunday. But
Chris Owings spelling him against right-handers remains an attractive option. Ahmed was hitting .204 vs. righties.
Colorado Rockies
Ace pitcher Jon Gray, sidelined since mid-April by a broken left foot, will rejoin the Rockies in late June if his rehab in the Cal League goes as planned. The right-hander is scheduled to make two or three starts in the high Class A league.
Without Gray, the Rockies have played about .600 baseball, an impressive feat that recalls the 2016 Dodgers, who won at a similar pace while ace Clayton Kershaw was out for two months.
Gray, 25, was dominant for stretches last year. In his absence, the Rockies have received excellent pitching from rookie starters Antonio Senzatela, Kyle Freeland, German Marquez and
Jeff Hoffman.
Getting Gray up to full speed would support the rookies. Also, it might indirectly buy respites for several relievers, including closer
Greg Holland, who went into this week 23-for-23 on save attempts.
A playoff date against the Chicago Cubs wouldn’t scare the Rockies. Colorado won the season series 5-2, and at Wrigley Field last weekend the Rockies won three of four games and scored at least four runs in each game.
“I’m sure a lot of people looked at us as a team that was just hot at the time,” Nolan Arenado told the Chicago Tribune. “But I think we’re showing people we can play, and we can play with anybody.”
Los Angeles Dodgers
With the Rockies soaring in the NL West, a division the Dodgers have won the last four seasons, the staying power of Alex Wood becomes more important.
The Dodgers will seldom ask Wood to work deep into games, but he has emerged with a streak of 28 shutout innings.
Sidelined by a balky shoulder, lefty Wood hadn’t started since May 26 when he returned Saturday and took a 4-1 lead into the sixth. Reliever Josh Fields allowed a tying home run to Devin Mesoraco of the Cincinnati Reds, but Wood’s performance was encouraging.
The lefty struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter. “I felt good,” he said.
Wood, 26, was limited to 601⁄3 innings last year by injury. He made 32 starts and logged 1892⁄3 innings in 2015 for the Atlanta Braves and the Dodgers.
Having thrown only 532⁄3 innings this year, he’ll take brilliant stats into his next start, at Cincinnati — 2.01 ERA, 0.988 WHIP (walks/hits per innings pitched) and a strikeout rate of 11.2 per nine innings. He has allowed one home run, a trend that Cincinnati’s small ballpark will put to the test.
Per manager Dave Roberts, left-hander Scott Kazmir is on the verge of a rehab assignment and will pitch for the Dodgers this year. Hyun-Jin Ryu’s velocity was down Sunday, casting doubt on his return to the mound this weekend.
San Diego Padres
If only because things went so poorly for them the last time they were in this position, the Padres should have better luck with
MacKenzie Gore, whom they drafted third overall Monday, than they did with their previous No. 3 pick.
Donavan Tate, taken third in 2009, was a high school draftee from Georgia who forfeited a football scholarship to the University of North Carolina to sign with the Padres for $6.25 million.
Tate became sidetracked by problems with injuries and substance abuse. In 2010, he was suspended 50 games after testing positive for synthetic marijuana.
Tate, 26, never reached the big leagues. He batted .226 with 10 home runs and 351 strikeouts in 299 games over a six-year minor league career.
Now the Padres, per the original agreement, are on the hook to pay for Tate’s expenses at the University of Arizona, where he’s attempting to win a spot on the football team as a walk-on quarterback.
It is increasingly clear that a utility role is the Padres’ fit for
Cory Spangenberg, the franchise’s top draftee in 2011, back when Padres scouts were hoping Francisco Lindor would get to the 10th spot. The Cleveland Indians took Lindor eighth, and now he’s one of their stars.
San Francisco Giants
The playoff race appears well out of reach for the Giants, but recent progress points toward
Madison Bumgarner returning this season from a shoulder injury suffered in a dirt bike accident two months ago.
Bumgarner threw 30 pitches off a mound Sunday and was “letting it go,” manager Bruce
Bochy said. Barring a setback, he will face hitters this weekend and begin a minor league rehab assignment next week, putting him on track to return this summer, perhaps before Aug. 1.
The arrival of several advanced prospects also is expected this season from a group that includes pitchers Joan Gregorio, Kyle
Crick and Tyler Beede and third baseman Jae- Gyun Hwang.
Hwang can opt out of his contract July 1. Infielder Christian Arroyo, 22, who batted .192 in 34 games for the Giants before his return to Class AAA on June 4, figures to rejoin the team this season. Arroyo, who went 9-for-19 (.474) in his first five games after the demotion, said he “got swing happy and started putting pressure on” himself during his time with the Giants.
“I’m going to say something cliché, but it is what it is. So there you go.” Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw on the decision to remove him with Los Angeles ahead of the Nationals 2-1 after Kershaw had thrown only 95 pitches through seven innings. Manager Dave Roberts, who weighs input from an analytics-driven front office into his decisions, said it was the best move for the team.