"March hasn't exactly been the friendliest of months for Melvin Mora.

It started the first week when he was rear-ended in a car accident while driving to the ballpark on the Loop 101. He suffered a neck injury and was out of the lineup for several days.

Shortly after he rejoined the Diamondbacks, Mora was hit by a pitch just above his wrist and had to miss more time.

"I know. I know," Mora said, grabbing his wrist and then the back of his neck. "It's been weird, one thing after another."

What hurts most these days for the 39-year-old third baseman is his unproductive spring at the plate, where he was batting .167 after his first 10 games.

"He's an old man, what do you expect?" Diamondbacks catcher Henry Blanco joked.

"I might be old," Mora told Blanco before Sunday's game against the Oakland A's at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, "but you're older."

Mora is about six months younger than Blanco, but unlike the Diamondbacks' backup catcher, Mora will likely be in the starting lineup more often than not in 2011.

Now in his 13th big-league season, the two-time All-Star and former Silver Slugger winner will be counted upon to lend experience to an otherwise youthful core of regulars in manager Kirk Gibson's lineup.

Offensively, Mora has been able to produce consistently in recently years. Among major-league third basemen since 2004, he ranks fourth in hits (1,007) and RBIs (530), is tied for sixth in runs scored (520) and batting average (.287) and is eighth in home runs (122). Over the hill? Hardly."