The Rockies will be a bit shorthanded on Friday against promising young Mets hurler Zack Wheeler.
The Rockies will be short one of their stars on Friday against the Mets at Coors Field. Carlos Gonzalez, who left in the fourth inning of Colorado's 7-3 win over New York on Thursday with a bruised left index finger, will be held out of the lineup, perhaps in an attempt to make sure both injuries that have nagged him as of late can be kept under control.
Gonzalez is just now showing signs of escaping from a horrendous 7-for-53 slump that coincided with knee tendinitis. CarGo homered in the first inning on Thursday and has four extra-base hits in his last three-plus games.
Corey Dickerson will start in place of Gonzalez in left field and Brandon Barnes gets the nod over Drew Stubbs in the other corner.
Colorado's somewhat shorthanded lineup will face Mets hurler Zack Wheeler, who has a 3.99 ERA through five starts and has struck out 9.5 batters per nine innings. The only current Rockies player who has faced Wheeler is Stubbs, who has a single in two plate appearances against the 23-year-old right-hander.
Jorge De La Rosa will be looking to build on his strong start against the Dodgers last weekend in which he went seven innings and allowed only a run on four hits. Coors Field has been relatively kind to De La Rosa in 2014; the veteran southpaw has a 3.86 ERA with nine strikeouts in 9⅓ innings spanning two starts.