Rockies call up Hilliard, Santos, Rosscup and Bowden due to COVID contact tracing protocols

Antonio Senzatela has been scratched from his scheduled start; Chi Chi González will start in his place

The Colorado Rockies have welcomed four players from Triple-A this evening—but not exactly by design.

Antonio Senzatela was originally scheduled to start against the Dodgers tonight, but he is inactive as are pitchers Yency Almonte and Jhoulys Chacín, and outfielder Yonathan Daza. Colorado will instead send Chi Chi González to the mound on short notice, and without the standard long-relief safety net of Chacín.

With four players inactive, the Rockies have reached out to Triple-A Albuquerque and have acquired subsequent reinforcement: three pitchers and one outfielder. Sam Hilliard, Ben Bowden, Antonio Santos, and Zac Rosscup will be in Rockies uniforms tonight.

In addition, the Rockies announced that Bud Black will not be available to manage tonight’s game, so bench coach Mike Redmond will cover managerial duties.

First base coach Ron Gideon will also be unavailable.

Hilliard has recorded 37 at-bats with the big league club this year, posting a dreary .154/.324/.478 slash but turning things around in Triple-A (.242./329/.555). While Bowden has pitched 17 innings in the big leagues this year, his 7.94 ERA has done little to cement his status as a big leaguer. Santos holds a 2.25 ERA with the Rockies this year but has been limited to four MLB innings. Zac Rosscup has not thrown an MLB pitch since 2019; however, his 0.52 ERA in Albuquerque has been immaculate (17 ¹⁄₃ IP).

This is not the first COVID interruption of the second half: On Thursday, the Red Sox and Yankees were forced to postpone their matchup.

Purple Row will continue to update this developing story.