Josh Rojas gets active, drives Diamondbacks past Rockies

Josh Rojas dropped down a bunt single in the first, shot a double into the gap in the eighth and drove another double to the wall an inning later. Rojas seemed to be in the middle of everything in the Diamondbacks’ 9-2 victory on Saturday afternoon. It has been a common occurrence over the past week.

From the standpoint of pure production, Rojas has had similar weeks. But in terms of total contributions, it has been perhaps the most dynamic of his career, a stretch in which he has blended his abilities with his baseball acumen to impact games in a variety of ways.

Rojas came into the season with questions about his future. Most evaluators seemed to view him as role player — a good one, but something short of an everyday guy. With the season just past the midway point, he has begun to show he might be a bit more than that.

“It’s offense, it’s defense, it’s baserunning, it’s controlling at-bats,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said of Rojas’ recent performance. “It’s heady moments throughout the course of the nine innings. That’s who he is. He’s a winning player.”

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After his three-hit day on Saturday, Rojas owns a .284/.349/.438 line. He has shown a knack for finding his way on base, even without the benefit of consistent hard contact. He has run the bases well, showing confidence and aggressiveness. And he has shown an ability to make tough plays at third, though he also has gone through stretches of defensive inconsistency.

But more than anything he has impressed coaches and teammates not just with his baseball smarts but with his curiosity, his willingness to continue to learn and grow his abilities.

“He’s an actual gamer,” Diamondbacks right-hander Zac Gallen said. “I think he’s a ballplayer. I hate saying ‘old-school way,’ but he’s a super smart player. He understands the game from a different aspect. He understands how he can be successful in a game and tries to maximize that.”

Left-hander Madison Bumgarner fired seven sharp innings, finishing with what Lovullo said might have been the best three inning stretch he had seen from Bumgarner in his Diamondbacks career. Five Diamondbacks players notched multi-hit games. The win snapped a three-game losing skid, giving the Diamondbacks a chance to salvage a four-game series split with a win on Sunday.

Rojas had quite a week. On Tuesday against the Giants, he executed a gutsy, two-strike bunt for a single that helped spark a winning rally. Two days later, he caught the Rockies napping, stealing a base after a routine fly ball when neither the middle infielders nor the pitcher was paying attention.

On Friday, he blasted a leadoff homer and doubled, then stole a potentially important base — it was, in this instance, a straight steal — to put himself in scoring position as the potential tying run.

“I feel like he sees things that most guys don’t,” first baseman Christian Walker said. “The baseball IQ is very high.”

Rojas has always viewed himself as a student of the game. During his days in college, he would sit in class scrutinizing baseball videos on YouTube in hopes of finding a detail that might help make him a better player. Years later, little has changed. He relishes conversations about the game, starting them in the clubhouse with teammates or in the dugout with coaches.

“He’s pretty engaged in the dugout,” hitting coach Joe Mather said. “He'll just reference if a guy’s not getting his curveball over, leaving it short, missing arm side. He’ll point out when a guy looks frustrated on the mound.”

All are the sort of details that can make a difference in the outcome of an at-bat or a game.

Since the start of July, Rojas is 14 for 29 (.483) with eight doubles, a home run and four walks.

Rojas attributed his recent success something clicking with his routine. He said that for weeks he had been trying to “survive” at the plate by shooting singles, bunting or drawing walks. More recently he has been driving balls to all fields, looking particularly adept at using the left-center field gap.

“I think that’s when I’m at my best is when I’m able to take those fastballs into left-center,” he said. “It leaves me open for when they throw offspeed I’m able to pull it.”

That was when he did on Friday, reacting to a change-up from the Rockies’ Chad Kuhl and pulling it into the right-field seats. On Saturday, he shot a 99 mph fastball to left-center for one RBI double, then drove a 95 mph fastball to the wall in left-center for his second.

Rojas said he came into the season trying to maintain as even-keel of an approach as possible. Rather than letting hitless stretches sink him, he said he is trying to bring the same approach to the park regardless of how he did the night before.

“Staying in the grind and staying focused and being consistent, that’s what it takes to be an everyday guy in this league,” Rojas said. “That’s been my main goal this whole year. Don’t get too caught up in the 0 for 4s, 0 for 5s or 0 for 10s. You can’t get too caught up in those. You have to show up every day like it’s a new day.”

Lovullo said Rojas’ ability to grow and adapt was a topic of a conversation he had on Saturday with Luis Urueta, a coach on his staff. The two marveled at Rojas’ willingness to listen, his eagerness to learn, even at a time when he is playing perhaps the best baseball of his career.

“You can hit him square between the eyes with comments,” Lovullo said, “and he accepts that.

“He’s a very, very good baseball player, and he’s going to continue to grow and learn. He’s got a long way to go before he’s a final product. He knows that.”

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Heady' Josh Rojas gets active, drives Diamondbacks past Rockies