Alex Montoyo headed home

Alex Montoyo, the infant son of former Biscuits manager Charlie, left the UCLA Medical Center today and will fly home to Arizona on Saturday.

Alex was born Oct. 17 with a heart defect and has spent the last five months in hospitals in Tucson, Ariz., Phoenix and Los Angeles. His family has been living in a small apartment near the UCLA hospital, but Alex, mom Sam and 5-year-old brother Tyson are flying home to Arizona today. Charlie is driving.

"Tyson said we've been waiting on this day for a long time," Charlie said. "We've gone to the hospital every day, hoping and praying. Now, we get to take (Alex) home."

Alex was born with Ebstein's anomaly, had two open-heart surgeries in his two months and was in intensive care at UCLA until early this week. Alex will have his next surgery in a few months, Charlie said.

Charlie said he'll arrive at spring training next week and return to Triple-A Durham for the season. He will be home "two or three days and then leave until September."

"That's all right," he said. "We're taking my baby home."