CLEVELAND -- In a couple of days, Colorado infielder Eddy Garabito will accomplish what he could not in eight seasons in the Baltimore Orioles organization -- make it to Camden Yards.

Garabito, who batted leadoff for the Rockies on Wednesday night at Cleveland, never received a call to the Majors while with the O's. It took signing with Colorado last winter, and batting .301 in 49 games at Triple-A Colorado Springs, to get his shot when regular second baseman Aaron Miles landed on the disabled list with a right-side muscle injury on May 26.

Garabito, 28, has been the useful reserve the Rockies had hoped he'd be. He entered Wednesday with a .364 (8-for-22) batting average. More importantly as he attempts to prove his worth as a versatile bench player, he is 3-for-6 as a pinch-hitter and had not committed an error.

The trip to Baltimore will put Garabito among old friends, yet it will be new. He had not been to the Orioles' Major League stadium under any circumstance, even though he played 1,001 games for the organization. That included four full seasons in Triple-A. Garabito said he was never angry at the Orioles, nor does he question their decisions.

"I don't call it happy, I call it excited," Garabito said of the prospect of playing against Baltimore. "I don't know what happened there, but I could do nothing about it. I just worked hard, did whatever the manager said, and tried to make the team better."

The Rockies certainly didn't plan on having nine players on the disabled list at this point or taking the field on Wednesday with three players (Garabito, designated hitter Ryan Shealy and catcher Danny Ardoin) who spent most of the year in Triple-A. But manager Clint Hurdle said Colorado signed players like Garabito to improve the quality of Triple-A players in the case of emergency.

"He works hard," Hurdle said. "He can move around the infield, but second base by far is his most superior position. He can do the job at short, but his arm is going to come up a little short when he has to go into the hole. Being a switch-hitter, he's got a little bit of barrel to his bat on both sides of the plate, and he's got some foot speed."

Wait and see: For a team in the position of Colorado, the next month and a half is crucial. Colorado carries several players of interest to other teams. Make the right deals for the right young prospects or Major League-ready players, and Colorado can accelerate its building.

"That could be a byproduct of the month, but a lot of that will depend on how the industry goes, how we perform and how certain players perform," Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd said.

Left-hander Joe Kennedy, who started Wednesday night, and center fielder Preston Wilson are atop the list of possible trade candidates. Rumors are hotter involving Kennedy, with Oakland being joined by reported interest from the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco and Texas. But O'Dowd would not acknowledge that Kennedy was pitching his last game for the Rockies on Wednesday.

A situation such as Wilson's -- he is a talent that could help certain contending teams, but has a large contract that has to be dealt with -- narrows the number of teams that could become involved. O'Dowd said such situations "have a tendency to drag out."

Meeting of the minds: Hurdle said he met with left-handed pitcher Jeff Francis, who has given up 12 runs in his last two starts and has had his delivery spin out of whack. Hurdle and pitching coach Bob Apodaca are hoping to find specific keys to correct his problems, which include striding too far and too quickly to the plate and not being able to put the ball on either corner.

O'Dowd said it was time.

"Jeff needs to step up and pitch better than this, because he is better than this," O'Dowd said. "There's no reason his delivery is as bad as what it is right now. There's no reason his command is as bad as it is right now. He should be better than this."

Overall, O'Dowd said the difficult times the club is going through are for a purpose.

"A lot of it is a step forward and a step back, but that's how it is with a young club, and most of the time it's painful," he said. "Most of the time it's through mistakes, but they are learning.

"The (shortstop Clint) Barmes injury (a broken collarbone suffered in an accident away from the park) was a tough blow because we don't have a veteran shortstop -- Desi Relaford is doing a good job, but we didn't sign Desi to be an everyday shortstop."

On deck: Right-hander Jamey Wright (4-5, 5.68 ERA), who is 2-0 with a 1.86 ERA in his last three starts, will lead the Rockies against Cleveland right-hander Kevin Millwood (1-4, 3.20 ERA) in the finale of a three-game series.