Rock­ies reliev­er Car­los Estevez feared the worst.

On Aug. 16 at Coors Field against Texas Rangers, the 27-year-old Domini­can ed a line dri­ve come off the bat of Scott Heine­man and drill Estevez’s right pitch­ing hand. He winced in pain after his first save of the sea­son — and won­dered if it might be over.

“The way that it got swollen, I thought (my hand) was bro­ken,” Estevez said Sat­ur­day on a video con­fer­ence call. “It felt pret­ty bad.”

Thank­ful­ly, the x‑rays were neg­a­tive, and Estevez has been pos­i­tive on the mound ever since.

Enter­ing Game 2 Sat­ur­day at home against the Padres, he post­ed a 2.25 ERA with no runs allowed over his last five out­ings. Estevez has tal­lied 13 strikeouts.

“I feel like I’m in a good spot,” Estevez said. “My feel came back. I’m pitch­ing well. … Some­times my fast­ball is off and I’m miss­ing a lot, but my slid­er and change­up are there to back me up. That’s how I feel like I grew up in con­fi­dence. I can pitch based on my off-speed (pitch­es), too, and show my fast­ball. That’s some­thing that has made me better.”

Estevez has made sig­nif­i­cant strides as a reliev­er with his ERA falling in each of the last three seasons.

“The con­sis­ten­cy of a reliev­er is some­thing that’s val­ued,” Rock­ies man­ag­er Bud Black said. “We feel as though we have a good one in Car­los. A con­sis­tent per­former. I think that can con­tin­ue into the future. He’s a guy that can con­tribute at the back-end of the game … to get four or five outs if needed.”

Gon­za­lez returns. The Rock­ies announced Sat­ur­day that they have called up right-hand­ed pitch­er Chi Chi Gon­za­lez from the 10-day IL after he dealt with a biceps strain. Col­orado optioned right-hand­ed pitch­er Ash­ton Goudeau to their alter­nate train­ing site at Metro State.

Dahl update. Rock­ies out­field­er David Dahl went on the 10-day IL on Aug. 19 with low­er-back sore­ness and is mak­ing progress toward a return. He had strug­gled in 19 games this sea­son with a .189 bat­ting aver­age and 21 strikeouts.

“David is feel­ing bet­ter,” Black said. “There’s no timetable for his return. I wish I could add some­thing more, but David was here ear­li­er receiv­ing treat­ment. He’s get­ting bet­ter. Not quite sure when he’ll be back in there.”

Padres RHP Chris Pad­dack (2–3, 5.15 ERA) at Rock­ies RHP Ryan Castel­lani (1–1, 3.54 ERA)
1:10 p.m. Sun­day, Coors Field
TV: AT&T SportsNet
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 AM

Castel­lani, 24, earned his first career MLB win Mon­day to open the Dia­mond­backs series in Ari­zona. The 2014 sec­ond-round draft pick struck out three bat­ters, allowed two earned runs, and three hits over six innings for a qual­i­ty start. The 3–2 win had snapped a sev­en-game los­ing streak. Castel­lani lin­gered in Double‑A for two sea­sons (2017-’18) before break­ing through to Triple‑A last year. Pad­dack made his major league debut last sea­son and fin­ished his rook­ie year 9–7 with a 3.33 ERA. He made one qual­i­ty start against the Rock­ies with three earned runs allowed over six innings. The 24-year-old right-han­der won his first two starts this year, but has since lost three in a row.

Trend­ing: Rock­ies short­stop Trevor Sto­ry entered Sat­ur­day night rid­ing an eight-game hit­ting streak while bat­ting .323 with two home runs and three RBIs over that span.

At issue: Col­orado had its three-game win­ning streak snapped on Fri­day after sweep­ing the Dia­mond­backs in Ari­zona (3–0). The loss put the Rock­ies back at .500 (16–16) before Game 2 of their series against the Padres.

Pitch­ing Probables
Mon­day: Padres TBD at Rock­ies RHP Ger­man Mar­quez (2–4, 4.50), 7:40 p.m., ATTRM
Tues­day: Giants RHP Kevin Gaus­man (1–2, 4.54) at Rock­ies RHP Jon Gray (2–3, 5.45), 6:40 p.m., ATTRM
Wednes­day: Giants RHP Logan Webb (2–3, 4.75) at Rock­ies LHP Kyle Free­land (2–1, 3.43), 1:10 p.m., ATTRM