A rough weekend in Milwaukee could’ve gotten rougher for Marwin Gonzalez on Saturday, as he had to leave the Yankees’ loss to the Brewers mid-plate appearance for a bizarre reason: he was hit in the head on catcher Victor Caratini’s return throw to the mound after a pitch.
Luckily, that was just a precaution, as Gonzalez cleared concussion protocol, and was “doing all right” after the game.
“He took a pretty good shot, better than I thought -- he had a pretty good mark on his face when I went out there to check on him,” manager Aaron Boone said after the game. “So, trainers just felt like he needed to get out of there at that point. He wanted to stay in, but I don't think it's anything that's going to put him down. But we'll see how we're doing throughout the night."
Aaron Hicks replaced Gonzalez and struck out, and the Yankees put Hicks in center field on defense, moving Aaron Judge over to right and Oswaldo Cabrera to first base to replace Gonzalez in the field.
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Still, a scary situation, especially one day after Gonzalez had left Friday’s game with dizziness, but he was already feeling better postgame.
“I kind of blacked out for a second," Gonzalez said after the game. "My legs were a little shaky, too. I was out for a minute, and that's the reason why the trainer didn't want me to keep going. I tried, but he didn't want to because he said it wasn't good symptoms. But, I think I'm going to be okay. He got me pretty good, and I didn’t realize how good he got me until I saw the video.”
Apparently, Caratini was talking to Gonzalez when it happened and may have been distracted, leading to the incident, but Gonzalez told Caratini in the moment he was okay by patting him on the chest.
And, indeed, Gonzalez was indeed okay coming into the stadium on Sunday, but was not in the Yankees lineup, as the team activated Anthony Rizzo from the IL and re-inserted him in the starting lineup at first base.
Gonzalez, who is hitting .193 in 77 games for the Yankees this year, had been filling in at first base in the absence of both Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu, who is on the IL with a toe injury.
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