Tuesday night started out well for Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Joc Pederson.
It was his bobblehead night at Dodger Stadium.
It's @yungjoc650 Bobblehead Night presented by The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf! #LetsGoDodgers pic.twitter.com/DdEny84gwz
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 24, 2017
And his brother Champ was on hand to throw out the first pitch.
Champ is a champ.@yungjoc650’s big brother got to throw out the first pitch at the @Dodgers game tonight: https://t.co/2nuBugXQwT pic.twitter.com/x58AnSOMfV
— MLB (@MLB) May 24, 2017
But then the actual game happened, and it left Pederson in plenty of pain. Pederson basically got climbed on by rookie left fielder Cody Bellinger on a collision during the seventh inning:
Bellinger just dunked on Pederson. #baseketball pic.twitter.com/Ykpevm1CFj
— Morgan Bagg (@MorganBagg) May 24, 2017
Thankfully, Pederson and Bellinger were fine after that collision. But a collision to end the top of the 10th didn’t have as fortunate results.
Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina hit a flyball deep into right-center field, and Pederson ran hard into right fielder Yasiel Puig. This collision left both players down on the ground in pain for a while. Pederson had blood on his forehead, while Puig was holding his left side. The next half inning, Puig would stay in the game and take his at-bat, but Pederson was removed.
Here are videos of that collision:
Hopefully Pederson avoided a concussion and is simply left with a bevy of bruises tomorrow.
Oh, and that second collision only happened because the Cardinals tied the game by scoring from second base on this wacky wild pitch in the top of the ninth inning:
[ESPN]