SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Second baseman Thairo Estrada smiled Thursday morning and said, through Rockies interpreter Edwin Perez, ¡°You can¡¯t over-protect yourself.¡± Kicked in the back of the neck on Saturday, Estrada was jarred enough to be out of action until Thursday night.
Then fate showed Estrada his right wrist, not his head, was the area of concern.
He was hit by a pitch from the Rangers¡¯ Kumar Rocker while leading off the first inning of the Rockies' 7-4 victory at Suprise Stadium. Estrada stayed in, stole a base, and played defense but was removed before his next turn to bat. The Rockies announced the injury as a wrist contusion, and Estrada was sent for X-rays.
Injuries always hurt and are doubly troublesome as the regular season approaches. Estrada signed as a free agent during the offseason and is not worrying himself about the unexpected bump.
On Saturday, he was making a tag on the White Sox Michael A. Taylor in Glendale, Ariz. Taylor¡¯s foot connected hard with the back of Estrada¡¯s neck. There isn¡¯t a baseball apparatus to protect that. Estrada had no interest in extra padding for his batting helmet.
¡°It¡¯s something you can¡¯t control, something you don¡¯t expect to happen, so hopefully I¡¯m OK now,¡± Estrada said. ¡°They had to explain to me what happened on the play because that kind of thing doesn¡¯t happen to you usually in that location.¡±
But the last few days have become whack-a-body-part for Estrada. After being drilled on the arm by Rocker, Estrada slammed his helmet in disbelief that he had another injury so immediately.
¡°This time of spring, I hate that,¡± Rockies manager Bud Black said. ¡°All the coaches and I, and all the players, just hold our breath and hope that he¡¯s fine.¡±
'IT FEELS NORMAL'
Righty Germ¨¢n M¨¢rquez went 4 2/3 innings, and the three runs off him came on a Joc Pederson two-run shot in the first and a Corey Seager solo homer in the fifth on a backdoor slider. M¨¢rquez struck out three against six hits.
Limited to one start last year in his return from Tommy John surgery, M¨¢rquez said, ¡°It feels normal.¡± He appreciated the opponent.
¡°They¡¯ve got some good hitters, so that gets me ready for the season,¡± said M¨¢rquez, who liked his fastball command.
SPRING ILLNESS
Outfielder Nolan Jones has not appeared in a Cactus League game since Sunday because of strep throat, but he was healthy enough on Thursday to get at-bats on the Minor League side. Veteran Kris Bryant also participated in Minor League play to build his catalog of at-bats.
Jones, who lost seven pounds while ill, started Cactus League play slowly but recently climbed to .227. He¡¯s still looking to make the dangerous contact that became frequent during his rookie year when he hit .297 with 20 home runs and 62 RBIs. Last year, he went through back and knee injuries and finished at .227 with three homers and 28 RBIs in 79 games.
HUNTER SEASON
Catcher Hunter Goodman, who won the job as the co-starting catcher with Jacob Stallings, homered for two runs in the seventh. It was his first home run and eighth extra-base hit of the spring.
MAKING THOSE IMPRESSIONS
Outfielders Jordan Beck and Sam Hilliard entered the volatile final days of Spring Training with numbers that endangered their active roster spots. Beck would need to be in the Majors regularly or go to Triple-A Albuquerque. Hilliard has a $1 million salary (plus no Minor League options) and has the tools the team needs (center-field defense when Brenton Doyle needs a game off, speed and experience as a pinch-runner), but he entered with 21 strikeouts in 36 at-bats.
Hilliard powered a two-run shot to center off Rocker in the second inning.
Beck, whose swing showed signs of its arrival during Wednesday¡¯s game against the Diamondbacks, followed Michael Toglia¡¯s third homer of the spring, a two-run shot in the fifth, with his own third homer.
EXPERIMENT OVER
Last Friday, righty Ryan Feltner gave up five runs on five hits and five walks in 1 2/3 innings against the Rangers. He immediately stuffed the outing in the It Happens Every Spring file.
On Wednesday, Feltner pitched in a Minor League game against the Diamondbacks, yielded just one unearned run and struck out six in five innings. He explained the start against the Rangers as an experiment gone wrong.
¡°I was having a little bit of a problem finding my breaking balls as consistently as I wanted, so I made a slight mechanical tweak with the angle of my shoulders -- literally an inch,¡± Feltner said. ¡°It threw everything else off. I was pulling my fastballs.
¡°Yesterday, I was like, ¡®I¡¯ve got two more Spring Training starts. Probably time to go into compete mode,¡¯ and train that muscle as well.¡±