Bradley Blalock, Rockies seek to slow down Padres

The Colorado Rockies essentially offered the white flag on the 2024 season a month ago with a shift to younger players, and right-hander Bradley Blalock will receive more playing time as a result.

Blalock, 23, was acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers on July 27 and made his first major league start with Colorado on Monday. He will get his second start when the Rockies close a three-game series against the San Diego Padres on Sunday afternoon in Denver.

Blalock (0-0, 4.05 ERA) will make his second appearance against the Padres, who will send veteran right-hander Joe Musgrove (3-4, 5.20) to the mound.

Blalock made his debut in the majors with the Brewers on June 20 when he tossed a scoreless inning against the Padres.

Colorado catcher Drew Romo had his contract selected to fill the roster spot of Elias Diaz, who was given his unconditional release Friday. Romo made his debut Saturday night.

"He cared," Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt said of Diaz. "He's going to be missed in a lot of ways, but this is more that we've got to get better. The first step, I view, in getting better is giving Drew an opportunity here to get established, get his feet on the ground and see where that goes."

Romo has six weeks to get established, and that began in San Diego's 8-3 win over Colorado on Saturday.

Romo, 22, was drafted by Colorado in 2020 and was the top prospect in Triple-A, where he hit 14 home runs in 85 games for Albuquerque this season. He was 0-for-4 Saturday night and reached on a fielder's choice.

While the Rockies have looked to the future, the Padres are very much in the present. They have won 20 of their last 24 games.

Musgrove wasn't around for the start of the team's run, but he joined in last week. He was on the injured list with inflammation and triceps tendinitis, caused by a bone spur in his pitching elbow.

He didn't throw for a month after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his elbow. He scattered two hits over 4 1/3 scoreless innings in his team's 2-1 win over Pittsburgh on Monday and came out of the start healthy.

"Typical Joe, he was attacking guys," San Diego manager Mike Shildt said. "He made quality pitches. Good for him, and good for us to have Joe back."

Musgrove altered his delivery during his rehab to help take stress off of his pitching elbow.

"Really, just moving the body better," he said after his start against the Pirates. "Using the whole body to throw the ball. I felt like a lot of the stress on my elbow was from not really loading into the lower half well and not continuing my rotation through release."

Sunday will be Musgrove's 12th start this season and the ninth in his career against Colorado. He is 4-3 with a 3.06 ERA in his career vs. the Rockies, and 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in Denver.