For­mer Rock­ies clos­er Wade Davis is back for the stretch run of the 2020 sea­son. What role he might play is yet to be determined.

Davis, 35, was rein­stat­ed from the injured list Sat­ur­day before the Rock­ies host­ed the Los Ange­les Angels at Coors Field. Davis has been out with a strained right shoul­der since his appear­ance in the Rock­ies’ home open­er on July 31 — an 8–7 loss to San Diego at Coors Field.

To make room on the 28-man active ros­ter, Col­orado optioned right-han­der Ash­ton Goudeau to its alter­nate train­ing site.

If Davis is used as a long reliev­er or late in games will depend on his per­for­mance. His shoul­der was sore before he went on the IL and his fast­ball was aver­ag­ing only 91.2 mph, down from his career aver­age of 93.9 mph and down sig­nif­i­cant­ly from the 96.7 mph fast­ball he threw for Kansas City in 2014.

Davis con­vert­ed two saves at Texas to begin this sea­son and had two outs and a one-run lead in the ninth inning against the Padres in the Aug. 31 home open­er but sur­ren­dered two homers — to Fer­nan­do Tatis Jr. and Tom­my Pham — and walked two in the loss.

Since sign­ing a three-year, $52 mil­lion con­tract pri­or to the 2018 sea­son, Davis has gone 4–13 with 60 saves in 70 oppor­tu­ni­ties in 122 appear­ances, post­ing a 6.18 ERA. He has an 8.01 ERA at Coors Field and a 4.22 ERA on the road.

Davis per­formed well in 2018 when the Rock­ies made the play­offs and led the Nation­al League with 43 saves while post­ing a 4.13 ERA. The 2019 sea­son, how­ev­er, was a dis­as­ter. He had an over­all ERA of 8.65 ERA and an 11.10 ERA at Coors Field — the high­est home ERA in major-league history.

Still, way back in spring train­ing, the Rock­ies expressed con­fi­dence Davis could rebound and be their clos­er in 2020.

“In a per­fect world, Wade is our clos­er and Scot­ty (Oberg) pitch­es in front of him in some capac­i­ty,” man­ag­er Bud Black said at the time. “It’s based on Wade’s great track record. That’s the per­fect scenario.”

But then Davis got hurt and Oberg is out for the sea­son after expe­ri­enc­ing blood clots in his right arm for the third time in four years.

Daniel Bard is Colorado’s cur­rent clos­er and, for the most part, he’s per­formed well, with six saves in six oppor­tu­ni­ties and a 3.79 ERA. Over­all, how­ev­er, Colorado’s bullpen has strug­gled, own­ing a 6.90 ERA that is the sec­ond-high­est in the majors.

Davis revealed in spring train­ing that the strained left oblique that land­ed him on the injured list May 22, 2019,  ham­pered him the rest of the sea­son. He admit­ted that he prob­a­bly returned too quick­ly and the injury messed up his delivery.

In 17 appear­ances before the oblique injury, Davis con­vert­ed all sev­en save oppor­tu­ni­ties, post­ed a 2.45 ERA and did not allow a home run. In his 33 appear­ances after com­ing off the injured list, he was 0–5, blew three saves in 11 chances and gave up sev­en home runs.

Foot­notes. Right-han­der Jon Gray, on the IL with shoul­der inflam­ma­tion, threw a light bullpen Sat­ur­day and Black said there is still a chance that Gray can start a game this sea­son. …  Infield­er Bren­dan Rodgers, out with a shoul­der injury, con­tin­ues play­ing games at the alter­na­tive site and was work­ing on infield­er drills at Coors Field Sat­ur­day afternoon.

---

On Deck
Angels LHP Andrew Heaney (3–3, 4.40 ERA) at Rock­ies RHP Ryan Castel­lani (1–2, 5.34)
1:10 p.m. Sun­day, Coors Field
TV: AT&T SportsNet
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 AM

Castel­lani, a 24-year-old rook­ie, believes he’s learned from each of his sev­en starts. Now he’s got to put that edu­ca­tion into action as the Rock­ies enter their stretch run with a play­off berth still pos­si­ble. The right-han­der did not get a deci­sion in the Rock­ies’ 7–6 win at Dodger Sta­di­um last Sun­day. The pow­er­ful Dodgers taught him a les­son, blast­ing three home runs in his 4 1/3 innings. All told, Castel­lani allowed four runs on six hits and issued a career-high four walks. He is 0–2 with a 6.91 ERA in four appear­ances (three starts) at home. Heaney was charged with the loss on Tues­day at Texas, allow­ing five runs (three earned) on five hits over five innings. Over his last three starts, the lefty has a 1.83 ERA with 20 strike­outs. He’s allowed three runs or less in six of his nine starts. In two career games against Col­orado, both at Coors Field, he’s 1–1 with a 2.70 ERA with 10 strike­outs over 13 1/3 innings.

Trend­ing: Short­stop Trevor Sto­ry went 2‑for‑4 with a triple, a dou­ble and two RBIs Fri­day night, halt­ing a streak of 39 games with­out mul­ti­ple RBIs, the third-longest
such streak of his career.

At issue: The Rock­ies con­tin­ue to get very lit­tle offen­sive pop from their catch­ers. Their com­bined .509 OPS ranks 28th in the majors.

Pitch­ing Probables:
Mon­day: OFF
Tues­day: Ath­let­ics LHP Sean Man­aea (4–2, 4.46) at Rock­ies TBD, 6:40 p.m., ATTRM
Wednes­day: Ath­let­ics RHP Mike Fiers (5–2, 5.06) at Rock­ies RHP Anto­nio Sen­za­tela, 1:10 p.m., ATTRM