Hillcats' Forbes: Injuries create opportunities

Since Pedro Alvarez and Miles Durham were promoted to Double-A Altoona nearly a month ago, the task of filling out a lineup card hasn’t been automatic for Hillcats manager P.J. Forbes. It used to be easy. Pencil Alvarez in the three hole, Durham in at No. 5. Plug Jose De Los Santos in at the top of the lineup, Matt Hague in the cleanup spot.

The lineup card became more of a mystery Friday night, for understandable reasons. Three everyday players — Chase d’Arnaud, Kris Watts and Jamie Romak — were out due to various injuries.

“I just got a text from Kyle (Stark, the Pirates’ player development director), who’s down in the Dominican,” Forbes said. “I tell him, he leaves the country, and all hell breaks loose.”

A jokes aside, Forbes doesn’t view the rash of injuries as a problem.

“Opportunity, that’s what it is,” Forbes said. “I hope guys look at it that way. Opportunities for at-bats, to produce, to show what they can do.”

The players summoned to replace the injured starters all played important roles in Friday night’s game against Salem at City Stadium, which Salem won 8-4 thanks to a four-run outburst in the 15th inning, which broke a tie created in the ninth when Daniel Nava hit a two-out, two-run home run off Harvey Garcia.

First, the injuries:

w Romack, the starting right fielder, broke the pinky finger on his right hand when he was hit by a pitch at Potomac Monday. The Hillcats put him on the disabled list Thursday, retroactive to Tuesday.

“He’s still got to see the doctor,” Forbes said, adding he wasn’t sure how long Romak would be out.

The fracture is on the right-handed Romak’s throwing hand.

w d’Arnaud, who starts either at second or shortstop most nights, jammed the thumb on his glove hand diving for a ground ball Wednesday at Potomac and he showed up at the park Friday sporting a cast on his hand. Forbes isn’t sure how severe d’Arnaud’s injury is.

“I think we’re going to send him to Pittsburgh to see what’s going on,” Forbes said.

d’Arnaud was batting .279 with two home runs and 15 RBIs for the Hillcats and will be out for several days, at the least.

w Watts, a Carolina League All-Star at catcher, had minor surgery on his left (non-throwing) shoulder to clear up an existing problem. The arthroscopic surgery will keep Watts out for about a week, Forbes said. Watts was placed on the disabled list Friday, and Joel Collins was activated to replace him.

With Romak out, Alex Presley moved to right field, and the Jose De Los Santos experiment in center field picked up steam. Angel Gonzalez, re-assigned to Lynchburg from Altoona Thursday, made the start at second base.

Eddie Prasch played third, Eric Fryer started behind the plate and Kent Sakamato, who missed 15 days after stepping on a nail when fishing on an off day, made his second straight start at designated hitter.

Sakamoto doubled in his first at-bat and scored two runs. Fryer walked, singled and scored a run and Prasch hit an RBI double.

De Los Santos, who committed two errors in center on the Hillcats’ recent seven-game road trip, continues to make strides in the outfield. Both errors, Forbes said, came when De Los Santos charged a ball and couldn’t slow down in time to keep the ball in his glove. He had some adventurous plays Friday, including one where he called off Jared Keel to make a play in left. In the 12th inning, De Los Santos made another blunder, diving for a ball on a play that was clearly Keel’s to make.

The ball dropped, and the game only continued because Keel made a diving grab of David Mailman fly ball with the bases loaded and two outs.

“It’s a work in progress,” Forbes said. “He’s shown an ability to get good jumps on balls.

“He hasn’t had an opportunity to make a throw yet. In the long term, I really think it’s going to add value to him as a player, the fact that he can go out there and spell guys. Maybe he can be a super utility guy in the long run.”