CINCINNATI — Jorge De La Rosa felt something wet. He looked down. He saw blood.
The veteran left-hander threw through a cut middle finger on his pitching hand last week. But the cut on Tuesday forced the Rockies to scratch De La Rosa from his scheduled start against the Reds at Great American Ballpark.
Colorado recalled Chris Rusin from Triple-A Albuquerque to start in De La Rosa’s place. The Rockies sent down long reliever Yohan Flande to Triple-A Albuquerque to make room for Rusin.
De La Rosa, instead, will start Saturday at Philadelphia. That will bump Jordan Lyles off his scheduled next start. Lyles, who’s dealing with a toe injury, will likely not start until at least Sunday, manager Walt Weiss said, if not later.
Against the Phillies on Thursday, De La Rosa cut his left middle finger on the seam of a baseball while throwing warm-ups before the game. He pitched through the cut in an uneven outing, but he avoided the disabled list.
WATCH: Trending Now: Jorge De La Rosa out with cut finger
“I felt something wet. It was blood,” De La Rosa said. “It was hard. You saw the game. I didn’t have command.”
He pitched 4 1/3 innings for a no-decision against the Phillies. But he struck out five to reach 774 career strikeouts for the Rockies, passing Ubaldo Jimenez for the club record. The Rockies won the game 7-3.
De La Rosa had some of the skin around the cut shaved to allow it to heal. He threw on flat ground Tuesday and said his finger was sore and tender, but he otherwise had no difficulties.
“We felt like he needed a few more days,” Weiss said. “We wanted to see how the cut healed.”
With Lyles, who left Saturday’s game in the fourth inning with a sprained toe on his left foot, the Rockies are not likely to put him on the DL, Weiss said.
“We’re still monitoring him,” Weiss said. “But he may be in the same boat, where we make an adjustment to his next start. We’re not overly concerned.”
Rusin, who was called up from Albuquerque on May 6 as the 26th man for the second game of a doubleheader against the Giants, never appeared. He was claimed off waivers from the Cubs in September.
With the Isotopes, Rusin is 3-2 with a 6.29 ERA in six starts and one relief appearance. With the Cubs, Rusin has some experience pitching against the Reds.
Nick Groke: ngroke@denverpost.com or twitter.com/nickgroke
