Gibson ready for players to go the distance

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.”

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