CarGo exits game early with knee, ankle soreness

DENVER -- Carlos Gonzalez left Friday's 10-9 win against the Padres after re-aggravating a lingering knee issue and rolling his ankle in the follow-through of a sixth-inning swing that resulted in a groundout to shortstop.

"I twisted my ankle on the swing, and then I tried to avoid the ankle, and my body and the whole weight [came down] on the knee," Gonzalez said. "It's all right, just sore. Depends on how I feel tomorrow, I don't want to miss any games. Right now it feels good, but in the moment, I was in pain. It's going away, and hopefully I feel better and play tomorrow."

Gonzalez walked and hit two triples before exiting, driving in three runs and leaving with the Rockies ahead by one. He returned to the field after the injury and fielded a double after watching a pair of homers sail over his head. He left the game during a pitching change after the Padres scored four runs without recording an out.

"I tried to stay, but they just kept hitting the ball to left field," Gonzalez said. "At that moment, I wanted to just take a breather and just wait until I get better, but they just kept hitting the ball to left field -- the two home runs and the ball off the wall. When you're running, it wasn't feeling better."

Jonathan Herrera replaced Gonzalez in left, making his first appearance in the outfield in his fifth big league season.

Gonzalez has been on a tear, with multihit games in five of his past nine games. He's hitting .337 (34-for-101) over his last 26 games, with 10 home runs, four triples, four doubles and 27 RBIs. He hit three homers in Wednesday's rout of the Reds, but as he explained Friday, his knee has been an issue throughout the season.

"To be honest, [it's bothered me] since Spring Training," Gonzalez said. "I have good days and I have bad days, but it's a good thing that I've been playing through it. When I make a bad move, like I did on the plate, that's when it gets me. But the good thing is it goes away fast. The last thing I wanted to do was to be out of the game. Too bad I couldn't stay, but it's a really good thing that we got the win and I'll be ready for tomorrow."

The Rockies are carrying four outfielders, but starter Michael Cuddyer sat out Friday with "soreness," as manager Walt Weiss explained before the game, having stumbled over first base trying to beat out an infield grounder in the final play of Thursday night's game. Eric Young, Jr., started in right for Cuddyer..

"He wasn't [available]," Weiss said after the game. "It's a rib strain."

Cuddyer had two oblique injuries in 2012, costing him most of the last two months of the season.

First baseman Jordan Pacheco has also been shagging flies in the outfield and played in the outfield in the Rockies' final spring game.