The Arizona Diamondbacks have 11 games left on the spring schedule and, up to this point, the starters have been getting the nod to leave the game and the ballpark early. But manager Kirk Gibson said that's about to change.

"You know I'm looking and doing my schedules this morning (Sunday), they have to start playing more, more innings," he said.

"They have to start playing more. We are going to have some guys playing eight innings pretty soon, nine innings. They have to play nine innings before the start of the season. I will give them all one more day off, but they have to play virtually every day."

Early on in spring training, it was Gibson's job to give everybody in camp equal opportunity with playing time. As the clock winds down on spring and the D-backs get closer to Opening Day on April 6, Gibson has to focus on making sure his starters can go the distance and play all nine innings multiple days in a row.

"We haven't really had anybody play over seven innings," he said. "So here in the near future, we've got the split squad game on the 31st so we're going to have to push it leading up and then a little bit after as well."