Hudson on track for Sunday return to rotation

Published May. 22, 2012 5:11 p.m. ET

foxsports

PHOENIX — Except for the haircut, Daniel Hudson
looked the same when he returned to the Diamondbacks clubhouse Tuesday.

His appearance Monday was what mattered, and his strong showing has the
Diamondbacks looking toward his return to the starting rotation this weekend.

Hudson yielded two runs in five innings in a rehab start at Triple-A Reno, an
outing that left him positioned to rejoin the team for a start against
Milwaukee on Sunday.

Manager Kirk Gibson said he wants to see how Hudson recovers from his 71-pitch
outing in Reno before making it official, but the D-backs cleared the way by
optioning promising left-hander Patrick Corbin to Reno before Tuesday’s game.
That move cleared roster space for Konrad Schmidt, added as catching insurance
with Miguel Montero sidelined for the next two games by a groin injury.

“I feel good, ready to go,” Hudson said. “I might not be able to go 120 pitches
Sunday, but hopefully I can get deep enough to shorten the game enough.”

Hudson’s fastball topped out in the mid-90 mph range Monday, when he gave up
five hits in a 10-4 victory over New Orleans.

“I don’t know where that (velocity) came from," Hudson said. "I guess
I was just pumped up. I’m sure I’ll be pretty jacked up on Sunday, too, if I
get in there. We’ll see how it goes.”

Hudson was placed on the disabled list with a shoulder impingement retroactive
to April 19 after pitching through the pain a day earlier against Pittsburgh.

“I don’t feel anything at all anymore,” Hudson said. “To not have any pain when
I throw or the next day feels great.

“It was a slower process than I thought it would be at first. It’s early in the
year. We don’t want to push anything and not be ready to go in September or
whatnot. As far as having no setbacks, we’re pretty fortunate.”

Hudson could be throwing to usual battery mate Montero if the early prognosis
on the catcher’s strained left groin is correct. Montero left with a tweak in
the sixth inning Monday and will not start until Friday at the earliest, Gibson
said, although the injury does not appear to be serious. The D-backs have
Thursday off.

“We don’t think it’s 15 days, but at the same time we don’t want to push him,”
Gibson said. “We’ll take a couple of days and see how he progresses.”

Montero leads the D-backs with 21 RBIs and has five hits and four RBIs in his last six games.

“I didn’t feel anything pop, thank God," Montero said. "It was just
kind of a cramp. I felt a knot, a little tightness. Early in the season, you
don’t want it to get even worse. Probably a day or two, I don’t think any more
than that.”

Corbin was 2-3 with a 5.27 ERA in five starts after filling Josh Collmenter’s spot
in the rotation, with one of his two wins a 5-1 victory over San Francisco in which he gave up
three hits in seven innings.

“He understands what he needs to work on: command,” Gibson said.

That move means that Wade Miley, as expected, will remain in the rotation. That
seemed a foregone conclusion given Miley’s 4-1 record and 1.91 ERA in six
starts after taking Hudson’s spot in late April.