Carlos Gonzalez Injury: Updates on Rockies Star's Calf and Return

Updates from Friday, May 30

The Indians show Gonzalez has returned to the Rockies lineup:

Original Text

Colorado Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez was not in the team's starting lineup for Wednesday night's game against the Philadelphia Phillies after suffering a right calf contusion in Tuesday's 6-2 win in Philadelphia.

Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post tweeted out manager Walt Weiss' lineup card, which was also missing shortstop Troy Tulowitzki:

Gonzalez, 28, exited Tuesday night's game in the fifth inning after noticing increasing pain in his calf as the game went along. He fouled a pitch off his leg in the second and then struggled through three more innings—particularly in the outfield—before being pulled.    

"I got a couple of opportunities to get fly balls, and I just barely got to those, especially that big fly ball with the bases loaded," Gonzalez said, per Thomas Harding of MLB.com. "That would have been ugly if that ball had ended up hitting the ground, so they ended up taking me out."

The Rockies list Gonzalez as day-to-day. They have a scheduled off day Thursday before traveling to Cleveland for a weekend series with the Indians. It's likely the team will re-evaluate Gonzalez on Friday to see whether he's comfortable returning to the lineup. 

A two-time MLB All-Star, Gonzalez has had an up-and-down first couple months to the 2014 season. He's batting .264/.315/.456 with seven home runs and 29 RBI. While his power numbers are solid, Gonzalez's slash line would be the lowest across the board since his rookie season in Oakland. Gonzalez has hit no lower than .295 each of the past four seasons.

Colorado hasn't much noticed its star's mediocre start. The Rockies lead baseball in runs and are nearly an across-the-board leader in every major offensive category. That's mostly due to Tulowitzki, who has established himself as an early NL MVP favorite. Expected to finish near the bottom of the NL West, the Rockies are in third place and only 0.5 games out of a wild-card spot entering action Wednesday night.

Assuming Gonzalez's absence is mostly a precaution, his injury won't hurt much. But we'll probably know much more in a couple days when the Rockies arrive in Cleveland.  

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.