CarGo takes night off, eyes Saturday return

DENVER -- Rockies left fielder Carlos Gonzalez said he hopes he can return Saturday from the left index finger injury he suffered Thursday night.

Gonzalez suffered a broken blood vessel, which caused immediate swelling. It happened on a foul ball during his first at-bat -- which finished with him hitting his sixth home run of the season and second in as many games. The swelling, which appeared severe when it happened, has subsided quickly.

"I'm just going to chill today, try to take a day off from swinging, try to avoid impact on my hand, but it's making a lot of progress," said Gonzalez, whose injury is on his throwing hand. "I feel better today. I hope I'll be ready to go tomorrow."

Gonzalez is batting .245, unusually low for him, but there are some signs of a rebound. In his last six games, he is 6-for-25 but four of the hits have been for extra bases -- two doubles and the two homers. Although Gonzalez has been dealing with a flareup of tendinitis in his left knee for the past two weeks, he believes his slump isn't injury-related. He also doesn't believe the finger mishap will disturb whatever is going right for him.

"It doesn't matter," Gonzalez said. "That's how baseball is. You're going to have months where you're going to hit .240. You're going to have months where you're going to hit .340. The biggest thing right now is we're playing good baseball. But I don't need to worry about my numbers. They're going to be up there. It's a long season.

"Hopefully, when I get hot, it's when the team really needs me. Right now everybody is swinging the bats well and we're scoring a lot of runs. I'm getting close to where I want to be. At the end of the day, when my swing is good and I square the ball, it's going to go out, it's going to be extra bases."