Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia had to exit Monday night’s game in Baltimore after fouling a pitch off of his own face, at such an acute angle that it seems impossible he actually did it.
Seriously, watch this play, and try to figure out the physics involved.
#MLBenSala | ?? ¡OH, NO! ?♂. Dustin Pedroia sale del partido tras golpearse en la cara con su propio batazo de foul.? pic.twitter.com/L0YCSXJizQ
— Sala Deportiva (@SalaDeportivaRD) September 19, 2017
It looks like a result of Pedroia’s excellent bat-to-ball ability working against him; he lunges out after a sharp breaking ball down and away, gets just a fraction of the ball, and is in such a weird position after the off-balance swing that the ball kicks right back up into his face. (I wish he’d been facing Erik Bedard for this so I could say he was “hoisted by his own Bedard”, even though that really doesn’t make that much sense even with Erik Bedard involved.)
Pedroia left the game immediately, and was diagnosed with, essentially, a bloody nose:
Pedroia left the game with "nasal contusion." #orioles #redsox
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) September 19, 2017
The Red Sox ended up coming all the way back to win 10-8 in eleven innings, though, so maybe Pedroia’s self-inflicted sacrifice spurred the team to their comeback. More importantly, can we get that Sport Science guy on this? It seems like such a freak play, although Houston’s Colin Moran did something similar earlier this season, and with a much scarier result.
At a certain point baseball players are going to end up wearing facemasks, and it’s hard to blame them.
