CHICAGO -- Rockies righty reliever Adam Ottavino declared his formerly inflamed right shoulder healthy and expects to return from the 10-day disabled list Friday, the day he is eligible.
More importantly, he believes health will let him continue to regain the form that made him one of the Majors' top righty relievers over the last several seasons. Ottavino had struggled placing pitches this season. He has a 2.57 ERA in 23 appearances but has yielded an unusually high 1.429 walks and hits per inning pitched.
Through May 14, Ottavino's ERA had climbed to 3.60. But after making fundamental changes to gain better control of his crossfire delivery, Ottavino was scoreless in his next six outings. However, he went to the DL after giving up a hit and two walks (one intentional) in one-third of an inning against the Mariners on May 29. It was then he decided to address nagging soreness in the shoulder.
"I feel healthy and ready to compete," Ottavino said. "I've been working on things. We'll see how it plays out."
Ottavino said he pitched through a similar issue in 2013 the whole year. But he missed significant time in 2010, when he debuted in the Majors with the Cardinals and finished the year on the DL.
Worth noting
• Outfielder Gerardo Parra is expected to miss about two weeks with a right quadriceps strain. He suffered the injury attempting to steal second base Tuesday against the Indians. He said the injury would have been more severe had he not pulled up when he felt the pain. He veered off the basepath and didn't attempt to slide.
"I wanted to stop," said Parra, hitting .318 with six doubles and six homers. "When I felt bad, I didn't want to try to push and make it worse."
• An extra day has turned out to be just enough for Rockies righty German Marquez, who had his next start pushed from Thursday to Friday. Marquez was hit on the right hand by a hard Franchy Cordero smash in last Friday's 8-5 loss at San Diego. Marquez struck out a career-high nine, but gave up six runs on eight hits and one walk. Marquez reported feeling much better Thursday when he arrived at Wrigley Field.