Rockies starters Ryan Castellani, Chi Chi Gonzalez must step up for stretch run

With right-han­der Jon Gray lost for the rest of the sea­son because of shoul­der woes, starters Ryan Castel­lani and Chi Chi Gon­za­lez have become essen­tial fig­ures in the Rock­ies’ play­off chase. How they per­form could well deter­mine if the Rock­ies can keep their faint play­off pulse alive.

Castel­lani (1–2, 4.46 ERA) is sched­uled to start Fri­day night’s game against the Dodgers at Coors Field, while Gon­za­lez (0–1, 8.68) gets the call for Sat­ur­day night’s game. Gon­za­lez, how­ev­er, will be lim­it­ed to about 75 pitches.

Enter­ing Thurs­day night’s game against the Dodgers, the Rock­ies (22–26) need­ed to win eight of their final 12 games to fin­ish .500, a record which would like­ly qual­i­fy them as one of the Nation­al League’s eight play­off teams. Man­ag­er Bud Black said that was “doable,” but he knows start­ing pitch­ing must set the table for a strong finish.

Castel­lani, a 24-year-old rook­ie, was pound­ed for three home runs by the Dodgers in just 4 1/3 innings on Sept. 6 in Los Ange­les. In his last start, against the Angels at Coors Field, he walked a career-high six bat­ters, but bat­tled through 5 2/3 innings, allow­ing one hit and one unearned run.

“My con­fi­dence is great,” he said. “I know we’re in a big spot here, wind­ing down the end of the sea­son. But for me, I can’t let the pres­sure get too big. First of all, the best thing I can do is focus on the Dodgers, you know, one game at a time. Real­ly try to keep things as sim­ple as possible.”

Hilliard sent down. Rook­ie out­field­er Sam Hilliard, who’s seen his play­ing time dimin­ish, was optioned to the alter­na­tive site Thurs­day and the team recalled right-hand­ed reliev­er Jesus Tinoco to help shore up the bullpen.

Hilliard, a left-hand­ed hit­ter, was slash­ing .238/.304/.488 with six home runs and 10 RBIs in 84 at-bats. He had not played since Sept. 8 and had just four at-bats since hit­ting a home run at Los Ange­les on Sept. 4. He con­tin­ued to strike a lot — 36% of the time.

“Sam was sort of in the sit­u­a­tion where there (was) some left-hand­ed pitch­ing against us,” Black said. “Sam, over the course of the first 50 games, showed some good things for us and he will con­tin­ue to do that in the future as a poten­tial Rock­ie big-lea­guer, which we all think he’s going to be. We feel great about Sam’s future.”

Tinoco orig­i­nal­ly came to Col­orado in 2015 as part of the Troy Tulow­itz­ki trade with Toron­to. On Aug. 14, the Rock­ies trad­ed Tinoco to Mia­mi for pitch­er Chad Smith. Tinoco pitched in relief in three games for the Mar­lins, throw­ing five hit­less, score­less innings before Mia­mi des­ig­nat­ed him for assign­ment Aug. 30. The Rock­ies then picked up Tinoco off waivers.


On Deck
Dodgers TBD
at Rock­ies RHP Ryan Castel­lani (1–2, 4.46 ERA)
6:40 p.m. Fri­day, Coors Field
TV: AT&T SportsNet
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 AM

With the loss of Jon Gray due to a shoul­der injury, the Rock­ies need Castel­lani to give them a cou­ple of qual­i­ty starts down the stretch. He’s had some con­trol issues over his last two starts, includ­ing against the Dodgers at Los Ange­les. He pitched into the fifth inning but he walked four and gave up four runs on six hits, includ­ing three home runs. The Rock­ies, how­ev­er, won the game, 7–6. The 24-year-old rook­ie will make his eighth start of the sea­son (ninth appear­ance). Castel­lani is 0–2 with a 4.95 ERA in five games at Coors Field. In his last start at Coors, he pitched 5 2/3 innings but walked a career-high six bat­ters. The Dodgers, who have not announced a starter for Friday’s game, will like­ly make it a bullpen game.

Trend­ing: Enter­ing Thursday’s game, Rock­ies starters had cer­tain­ly done their part in recent games, post­ing a 2.10 ERA over the first five games of the home­s­tand, with four qual­i­ty starts.

At issue: Infield­er Ryan McMa­hon con­tin­ues strik­ing out at an alarm­ing rate. His 37.5 strike­out per­cent­age is the third-high­est in majors and the high­est in the Nation­al League.

Pitch­ing Probables
Sat­ur­day: Dodgers LHP Clay­ton Ker­shaw (5–2, 2.28) at RHP Chi Chi Gon­za­lez (0–1, 8.68), 6:10 p.m., ATTRM
Sun­day: Dodgers RHP Tony Gon­solin (1–1, 1.51) at Rock­ies RHP Anto­nio Sen­za­tela (4–2, 3.30), 1:10 p.m., ATTRM
Mon­day: Rock­ies RHP Ger­man Mar­quez (2–6, 4.33) at Giants LHP Drew Smy­ly (0–0, 3.94), 7:45 p.m., ATTRM

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