DENVER -- Rockies right-hander Chad Bettis landed on the 10-day disabled list Tuesday, but he hopes he can be back soon as he is eligible.
The Rockies officially recalled righty Antonio Senzatela, Tuesday night's starting pitcher against the Giants, from Triple-A Albuquerque. Because the club recalled outfielder Raimel Tapia when it sent starter Jon Gray down to Albuquerque, there are just four starters on the roster. However, with off-days Thursday and Monday, the club doesn't need a fifth starter until July 13 at Coors Field against the Mariners.
Bettis had no guarantees, but he would like to return to the rotation after the 10 days. With the DL placement retroactive to Monday, Bettis is eligible to be activated July 12. Between now and then, he will work to fix the blister problem that has flared up twice during games at Dodger Stadium.
When it happened on June 3, he stayed on his normal starting schedule but later admitted it affected him. On Sunday, Bettis left the game after three innings, which led to the DL placement. Both times the Rockies announced the injury as a "hot spot," or fluid beneath a callus.
Now it's time for as much treatment as possible.
"The kitchen sink … we felt like we had it under control the first time, but we'll keep doing that, maybe add a couple more things -- pickle juice, just trying to dry it out as much as possible," Bettis said. "Then we're going to make sure the discomfort is not there before we ramp back up."
Bettis (5-1, 5.10 ERA) has struggled for consistency through the blister issues. In the one recent start that he said it didn't affect him, he went 6 1/3 innings and held the Giants to two runs last Tuesday night.
Bettis declined to delve into reasons the big flareups have been at Dodger Stadium. Anything from weather to how balls are stored or how balls are rubbed before games -- not to mention the seams of the ball themselves -- are ripe for conspiracy theories.
"It would be fast to say that it is, but I have a hard time believing that they do something different than anybody else does," Bettis said. "I think it just could be a fluke thing and it just happens to be that both times it's flared up there. I'm not going to be out there saying they're doing something to the baseballs, because they wouldn't be doing it to their own guys."
Manager Bud Black said there is a considerable amount of unknown in Bettis' case.
"I don't think there's one traditional blister," Black said. "Everybody gets something on their fingers that causes pain and causes a pitcher to not make his pitches. They're all different, and in Chad's case, what's frustrating is that he's never had an issue like this in his career. It's frustrating.
"He doesn't know how to handle this because he hasn't been through this before. So let's treat it and see where we are in a couple of weeks."
The Rockies generally are loathe to place timetables on injury absences, and Bettis realizes the situation could be unpredictable, but he's optimistic.
"Who knows? But in my mind, hopefully it's not more than 10 days," Bettis said. "Hopefully, we can get it managed by that time, get it under control and be back out there. Realistically, I don't know what that looks like. We'll see. Unfortunately, it's like a day-to-day thing."