MIAMI -- Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar left Monday’s 6-4 victory over the Marlins in the eighth inning with left oblique soreness, and manager Warren Schaeffer said Tovar will be held out of the final two games of the series.
Tovar, 23 years old and the reigning National League Gold Glove Award winner at shortstop, is undergoing treatment and evaluation. With the Rockies having an off-day on Thursday, the team hopes he will be available for Friday night’s series opener against the Mets.
“He did it after his second at-bat -- it started small and started progressing,” Schaeffer said. “[Precaution] is what it was for me last night -- getting him out of the game. As I understand, obliques are serious things.”
This is Tovar’s second bout with injury this season. The first one was a major factor in the Rockies’ nosedive.
Tovar sustained a left hip injury vs. the Rays in the season’s second game, but kept playing. The injury left him compromised, and he was batting .212 through April 15 when the club placed him on the 15-day injured list. He missed a month as Colorado languished.
The Rockies’ struggles have continued with him, as the team has gone 3-13 in his 16 games back in the lineup; however, Tovar has batted .306 with three home runs and six RBIs from the No. 2 position in the order.
The Rockies are in a better position to absorb his absence, since they added Orlando Arcia -- the former Braves All-Star and regular at short -- to their roster last Wednesday.
Arcia, 30, hit .194 through May 22 before the Braves designated him for assignment, but he went 3-for-9 with a homer in his first three games with the Rockies. Colorado started Arcia at short on Tuesday against the Marlins.