DENVER -- Rockies left-hander Austin Gomber exited Saturday night’s game against the Brewers after two innings with left forearm tightness.
“The forearm started to tighten up a little bit in the muscle belly of form, not in the joint, so that's a good thing,” manager Bud Black said after the 6-5 loss, which ended the Rockies’ longest win streak of the season at five games. “He felt it a little bit while warming up. He thought it would go away, and it didn't. So we were very precautionary, and got him out of the game.”
Gomber entered the night with a 0.95 ERA in five home starts, but he started Saturday’s first inning by giving up consecutive doubles to Luis Urías and Willy Adames, and a single to Christian Yelich before a fielder's choice from Avisaíl García made it a 2-0 deficit. Gomber yielded a fourth hit in the second inning, but also struck out Jackie Bradley Jr. and didn’t give up additional scoring.
The Rockies will monitor Gomber over the next several days, but days off on Monday and Thursday allow Black to work around Gomber's injury.
“He was very astute and let us know,” Black said. “And, hopefully, we got this in time, where he didn't try to pitch through it tonight. I'm crossing my fingers that this is just a little forearm tightness, and he'll be back -- probably not as soon as his next start. We have a couple of days coming up. We were going to push him back anyway. So this gives him a little bit of a break.”
Even as Gomber laid a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the second, righty Jhoulys Chacín -- who pitched in the final inning of Friday night’s 6-5, 10-inning victory over the Brewers -- was warming in the bullpen. Chacín entered in the top of the third.
Chacín gave up a run that tied the game at 3 in the third, but earned a raucous ovation by escaping a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fourth.
“The guy’s a true competitor,” Black said. “He doesn't melt under pressure. He makes pitches, really competes. I love that you see the emotion.
“I think he’s the highest-tenured player on the team [he entered with slightly more than nine years’ service time]. He sets a great example each and every day for a big leaguer. His role is not a high-profile role, but his standing in the clubhouse is pretty cool.”
Gomber is the second Rockies pitcher this month to leave a game with an injury to his throwing forearm. Righty Jon Gray sustained his injury on June 4. Gray is slated to make an injury rehab start for Triple-A Albuquerque on Sunday, and if all goes well he can be slotted back into the rotation should Gomber need recovery time.