Upton on the way back
August 27th, 2008, 11:48 am · Post a Comment · posted by jerrybrown
Maybe it was the home run Justin Upton hit for Triple-A Tucson on Tuesday. Maybe it was the last three games for the Diamondbacks, when the offense has again sunk back into a slump, looking particularly anemic against San Diego rookie Chad Reineke Tuesday.
Whatever the reason, Arizona manager Bob Melvin said Upton will be back in Phoenix for this weekend’s Dodgers series, perhaps as early as Friday night but likely no later than Saturday.
“It sounds like he’s made some significant strides in the last few days,” Melvin said.
It doesn’t appear that Melvin is ready for a wholesale overhaul of his defense - moving Chad Tracy to third, Mark Reynolds to second and either Adam Dunn or Conor Jackson back to first - but Melvin is looking for something better, production-wise, than the three-hit effort against the Padres Tuesday.
“A couple of days of not-so-great results and not a great feeling, it’s time to shake things up,” Melvin said.
But after saying Reynolds has the offensive tools to play second - or short for that matter - Melvin made it clear that “I like him at third.”
Proving his point, Melvin made a lot of switches Wednesday, moving Jackson up to the No. 2 spot, dropping Chris Young to No. 7 and subbing Chris Burke for Augie Ojeda along with the expected Miguel Montero for Chris Snyder swap. So here’s what the lineup looks like today, with Randy Johnson facing Cha Sueung Baek, who has never won a game at Petco Park (0-7):
Drew SS
Jackson LF
Tracy 1B
Dunn RF
Reynolds 3B
Montero C
Young CF
Burke 2B
Johnson P
The Dodgers don’t play until tonight, so perhaps that will put a little more pressure on Arizona to perform today, with the huge weekend series kicking off Friday at Chase Field. And don’t look now, but the Rockies have won four straight at the perfect time and have climbed within six games of Arizona and three of the Dodgers.
