DENVER -- Saturday ended Rockies center fielder Charlie Blackmon's streak of appearances at 101 games, and he wasn't in Sunday's starting lineup. But he said he agreed that resting his bruised right big toe is the right strategy.
Blackmon missed 13 games in April with left foot turf toe, but since returning April 29, he has hit .330 with 21 home runs, 57 RBIs, 25 doubles, two triples and a .391 on-base percentage.
In 485 plate appearances from the leadoff position this season (he has five from other spots in reserve/pinch-hit duty), Blackmon has a .322/.382/.543 slash line. His .924 OPS is the third highest among players from that position in the Majors. He trails the Astros' José Altuve's 1.000 and the Cardinals' Matt Carpenter's .979, but Altuve's 205 leadoff appearances and Carpenter's 368 are far fewer than Blackmon's.
Staying on the field is important to Blackmon, who played in 154 games in 2014 and 157 last year after missing significant time due to injury in his first three seasons with Colorado. But Blackmon, 30, doesn't feel like a slacker.
"It really stinks, but I've still played a lot of baseball," Blackmon said. "If I get back in the next day or two, I'll still have played in 99 percent of the baseball that we've played. I'm feeling OK about it."
Blackmon sustained the injury Tuesday night in a collision at first base with Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez, who was covering the bag on a first-inning grounder. Blackmon's toe smashed into a spike on Gonzalez's shoe. Blackmon played the rest of that game and Wednesday's while extending his hit streak to 12 games. Blackmon talked his way into pinch-hitting during Friday night's 7-6, 11-inning victory over the Cubs, struck out and saw the streak end.
He sat out Saturday's 9-2 loss to the Cubs because the injury affected his running.
"It feels a lot better today than it did yesterday, and I expect it to feel a lot better tomorrow than today, so I don't expect it to be very long before it's back to normal," Blackmon said. "It's pretty sore, so being that it's my main push-off part, any time I push off that foot, it's really sore."