DENVER -- The appearance of Ian Desmond, the Rockies' big free-agent signee, has not made Mark Reynolds disappear. With the hitting he still displays, he's not going anywhere.
Reynolds' two-run homer keyed a four-run first inning as the Rockies blasted the D-backs for a 9-1 win at Coors Field on Saturday night.
Since Desmond's arrival, Reynolds has played in four of the club's five games and started four. He is 6-for-18 (.333) with two home runs and a .400 on-base percentage.
With Carlos Gonzalez having missed the past two games because of a right calf cramp and matchups -- like Saturday's against lefty Patrick Corbin -- allowing Reynolds to play first base while Desmond plays left field, Bud Black has found ways to keep him in the lineup.

"That's my thing. I'm just trying to make it a hard decision for those guys," said Reynolds, who leads the team with 10 home runs and is tied with Charlie Blackmon for the RBI lead with 26, to go along with a .315 batting average, .375 on-base percentage and .639 slugging percentage in 30 games. "Luckily, we don't write the lineups. If we're in there, we're going to try to produce. Coming off the bench, if that's our role that night, we don't want to mess with a good thing.
"Everybody's a professional here. We understand the other side of it, what those guys [managers] are trying to do. I'm just trying to make it hard on Buddy."
Whether Anderson is starting a game or, as was the case in San Diego on Tuesday, coming off the bench in the seventh and finishing it, Black sees Reynolds' value.
"We're going to use all our players as we move forward," Black said. "We're getting into May now. Guys are going to get a [breather] here and there. But Mark keeps producing. How do you keep him out of the lineup when he keeps producing?
"Ian's been a model leader in that he's going to do whatever it takes for us to win, whether it's moving positions day to day -- left field, first base -- whatever that might be. He sees what's going on."