Tuesday night from veteran pitcher Jason Hammel, who tossed 6 scoreless innings against the Miami Marlins with the rookie behind the plate.

“He’s a great kid; I love him,” Hammel said. “He basically has gotten better every start that I’ve worked with him, with the game calling, blocking. He’s even coming up to me giving me hugs now. He saw that I was frustrated coming out early, and he was like, ‘Hey, nice job.’ He’s got kind words, wise words (beyond) his young years. Obviously, very proud of him.”

For help, Contreras can turn to veteran catchers Miguel Montero (also a Venezuelan) and David Ross. Montero says he operates from the premise Contreras has all the ability he needs.

“It’s all about the mental approach,” Montero said. “I think this game is 70 percent mental and 30 percent abilities. It’s not about, ‘Catch the ball like this. Catch the ball another way.’ He knows how to catch a ball. He knows how to hit. Sometimes as a player, you want to help him with a little tweak, a little tweak maybe about hitting. But the most important thing for me is the thought process as a catcher is so important to stay focused on your catching and your pitchers.

“He’s got all the tools. Obviously, it’s tough for a young guy to come in and catch big-leaguers, established pitchers. It’s not that he gets intimidated, but he doesn’t want to mess it up, either. He doesn’t want to create (a situation) where a pitcher says, ‘I don’t like how he calls a game.’ So he stresses that a lot, and he works hard to get better at that.”

For that kind of help, Contreras seems grateful.

“A lot, especially with Miguel Montero and David Ross,” he said. “They help me, and I’m just thankful for those guys.”

Contreras has been playing regularly again of late after Maddon backed off a bit and gave him a breather in late July. Now, things seem to be on the upswing again. He is 5-for-15 with 3 walks and 3 RBI in his last 4 games.

“We gave him a couple days off,” the manager said. “I thought he was getting a little bit ragged with a lot of things just because he was playing too much. Again, just be aware of that. We want to stretch him deep into the season. We can’t push him too hard because I think diminishing returns will set in at some point. I thought he needed a break.

“We backed off. He looked really fresh at the plate the last couple nights. So yeah, you’ve got to keep an eye on these guys. They’re young. They’re not used to this stuff. They’re not used to the major-league game on a daily basis, the scrutiny and just the grind of the day-game, night-game thing that we do here.”

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