DENVER -- When he was a player, Kirk Gibson had a rule: trainers could not come out onto the field to see him.

Call it the football player in him, but the D-backs manager is slow to have his training staff go out when a player gets nicked up on a play.

"If somebody's hurt, you're going to come out," Gibson said. "But if you get hit on the elbow or whatever, you just kind of read it. Give them a chance, see if they can regroup, and if they can't then you have to go out. But in general, if the guy gets nicked on the leg or whatever and it hurts, I guess I'm not a guy that thinks you need to go out there and say, 'Is it OK?'"

The D-backs coaching staff goes through intense daily workouts with the following mantra: We go until we blow [out].

While not wanting any of his players to blow out, Gibson has tried to set a tougher tone.

"They'll tell you they feel great," Gibson said. "We've kind of created that and I love it. I'm not sure it's always been that way. That's kind of who we are. We want to be tough, we want to suck it up and we want to play through that stuff. It's secondary."

Blum could play bigger role moving forward

DENVER -- Infielder Geoff Blum was in the lineup for the D-backs on Monday, and manager Kirk Gibson said that Blum could play a bigger role during the rest of the regular season and beyond.

"He certainly, if he can stay healthy, will be on [the playoff] roster if we're fortunate enough to make it, yes," Gibson said.

Staying healthy has been difficult for Blum, who missed the first 92 games of the season with a knee injury. Then, after being on the active roster for just 10 days, he missed another 35 games with a fractured right pinkie.

Since being activated on Sept. 1, Blum had two plate appearances entering Monday. He struck out Friday and drew a walk on Sunday in an at-bat that impressed Gibson.

"His at-bat [Sunday] was clutch," Gibson said. "He's gotta play. I see him having a huge role in where we go. He's a good player, and he's got a lot of experience."

Blum also has playoff experience. He's appeared in the postseason twice, including the 2005 World Series in which he hit a crucial home run for the White Sox against the Astros.

Blum started at third base on Monday and Gibson indicated that he could also see time down the stretch at shortstop and first base.

Blum went 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs in Monday's 10-7 win over the Rockies.

Slumping Young gets day off against Rox

DENVER -- It was not the present that Chris Young was looking for on his birthday.

The D-backs outfielder was out of the starting lineup for just the fourth time this year on Monday as he turned 28.

Young has been bothered for the last few months by his left wrist, but he refuses to use it as an excuse for his second-half slump, and also detests getting days off.

D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said the injury was not the reason that Young was out of the lineup, though he acknowledged that he has seen the wrist bother him.

"We've seen him take swings and it obviously grabs him," Gibson said. "He would never admit it in a million years, so it's a moot point."

Gibson OK with Upton's ejection on Sunday

DENVER -- One day after watching outfielder Justin Upton get ejected by home plate umpire Brian Knight in the fourth inning, D-backs manager Kirk Gibson was asked if Upton should have made sure he did not get thrown out of such a key game with the Giants.

"I have no problem with it," Gibson said. "I might argue that it was actually better for the team. We'll just leave it at that."

The D-backs, who were down 1-0 at the time of the ejection, managed to rally for four runs in the eighth and pull out the win. The result was that the team showed it could win without Upton, and also that it was able to regain its focus after Gibson told them he felt they were distracted by the ejection.

"It turned out to be a great day for us," Gibson said. "It was a great day for our team, and he was a huge part of it, again."