Fortunately, it sounds like Josh Smith will walk away from Monday’s incident having avoided major disaster.
The Texas Rangers outfielder was taken to the hospital Monday night after he was hit in the face by a pitch from Orioles reliever Danny Coulombe in the third inning. Smith immediately tumbled to the dirt as Bochy and medical personnel hurried to check in on him, but he did walk off the field on his own power.
"He took a pretty good blow there to the lower jaw, looked like it was maybe a cutter that didn’t break,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said in his weekly appearance on the “K&C Masterpiece.” "He hangs in there so well against left-handers, and the ball just stayed in on him. I saw all the blood when I got out there and we’re all praying for him at that time, it’s a scary situation. I think it was about 88 mph.”
The official Statcast reading on the pitch labeled it an 88.5 mph sinker. Ultimately, Smith was indicating Monday night that he was feeling better.
“He walked off on his own, which was great to see, and then we did have some tests done and they came out clean,” Bochy said. “Last night he said he felt a lot better, he wasn’t in pain or anything. Latest update was that he slept in today but got up and felt pretty good. He wanted to know when he could take batting practice.
“So right now we haven’t done anything, we’ll evaluate him when he gets to the park, because you do have that concussion protocol that we have to go through. So that’s always the possibility, but right now we haven't done anything and he seems to be doing quite well.”
Bochy's comments came a few hours after Smith posted an encouraging message on Twitter about his condition.
Smith is not the first player this season to come out on the fortunate side of getting hit in the face by a pitch. Red Sox designated hitter Justin Turner was hit in the face with a fastball during spring training. He needed 16 stitches and was out for a few weeks, but those scans also came back clean and he was ready for Opening Day.
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