Another day off for Justin Upton

Diamondbacks All-Star Justin Upton was held out of the
Arizona lineup Tuesday night during a 10-0 win over the
Colorado Rockies, and he wasn’t happy about it.

Wednesday, Upton is once again out of the lineup as
manager Kirk Gibson tries to find a way to end the right
fielder’s near season-long slump.

“I’m never happy about not being in the lineup, I’m still
not happy about it, but with the day off today and a day
off tomorrow, I don’t expect any more the rest of the
season,” he said. “I expect to be in the lineup every day
and give my teammates everything I’ve got.”

Upton is hitting only .243 with five home runs and 20 runs
batted in. At the same point last season, when Upton
finished fourth in the National League Most Valuable
Player voting, he had 11 home runs and 30 runs batted in,
with a .268 batting average.

D-backs managing general partner Ken Kendrick was very
pointed in comments he made Tuesday about Upton, and
Wednesday, the outfielder responded.

“He obviously is frustrated with the way the team is
playing. I am, we’re both on the same page with that,”
Upton said. “The good thing is that he was honest. He
didn’t sugarcoat it. I think people everybody’s done
sugarcoating things around here and we really just want to
get back to winning.”

Despite being unhappy about his omission from the lineup,
Upton respects Gibson’s decision.

“He’s the manager, he makes the decisions, I come here, I
show up and do what I’m supposed to do,” Upton said. “Me
and Gibby have never had any bad blood, and I don’t think
there’s any now.”

Arizona Sports’ Kyndra de St. Aubin contributed to this
report

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