Club hopes Montero’s bat heats up
Catcher bats cleanup, gets 2 hits
CHICAGO — With Eric Chavez landing on the disabled list, the Diamondbacks are in need of a new cleanup hitter. On Friday afternoon, that man was Miguel Montero, who entered the game with just a .192 average.
But in a 7-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs, Montero finished with two hits and hit the ball hard all four times he came to the plate. He’s hoping it was the kind of day he needed to get going offensively.
“I stopped thinking and stopped trying and just let it happen,” Montero said. “I stayed nice and relaxed, see the ball, hit the ball. It was good today. Hopefully, it gets my confidence back and I can get a spark.”
Montero has been one of the majors’ better catchers over the past two seasons, and the Diamondbacks were counting on him to be a left-handed run producer somewhere in the middle of their lineup.
That need is even more pressing now that Chavez, who was hitting .325, is out indefinitely with an oblique strain. Chavez was hitting .410 out of the cleanup spot in 11 games, all of them coming over the past three weeks.
For now, it seems, manager Kirk Gibson is going to see if Montero can be the one to hit behind slugger Paul Goldschmidt.
“At some point he has to perform,” Gibson said of Montero. “The team needs him. He hit for us there last year. He’s capable of doing it. … We’ve got to get somebody going. Somebody’s got to hit behind Goldy. Somebody’s got to take responsibility.”
Said Montero: “Obviously, I want to get my bat started, and once it gets started, good things can happen to help the team to win. Chavez was a big part of our lineup. It’s unfortunate what happened. But we’ve got more guys here, and we’ve got to step it up and do our job.”
Chavez to the DL
Chavez was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a right oblique strain, and infielder Willie Bloomquist was activated from the DL after missing two months with the same injury.
Bloomquist said he has felt no discomfort in his oblique for the past week to 10 days and has “done everything I need to do” to get back.
Bloomquist went 7 for 15 in four games on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Reno.
“I haven’t been worried about it since I started rehabbing at Reno,” said Bloomquist, who suffered the injury on a swing during the last week of spring training. “I haven’t had any concerns with it. I’ve been worryfree for a week or so. It feels as good as it can be, I think, for the time being. It’s ready to go.”
Bloomquist was expected back on Monday in St. Louis, but Chavez’s injury accelerated the club’s timetable for him.
Chavez injured his oblique Thursday in Texas, walking immediately off the field after swinging at an 0-1 curveball in the first inning.
Gibson said Chavez would undergo an MRI exam today to determine the extent of the injury.
“As far as I know, he just felt something on his first swing then swung it again,” he said. “He sat around for two days, then all of a sudden you try to activate your quick twitch reflexes and just something happened, I guess.”