Masahiro Tanaka Hospitalized After Being Hit by Line Drive
Masahiro Tanaka, one of many Yankees’ key pitchers, was hit on the pinnacle on Saturday with a ball off the bat of his teammate, the slugger Giancarlo Stanton — a daunting incident that halted the staff’s first official summer time exercise.
Tanaka, who returned to his native Japan quickly after the season had been suspended in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic, was going through a pair of Yankees energy hitters, Aaron Judge and Stanton, at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon as he threw dwell batting follow in entrance of coaches for the primary time in months.
But Tanaka had little time to react when Stanton, who hits the ball as arduous as anybody in baseball, drilled a line drive towards the mound. The ball struck the right-handed Tanaka on the fitting facet of the pinnacle, knocking him to the bottom, the place he lay for at the least 5 minutes whereas cradling his head.
“It sucks to see something like that, especially during something as simple as a sim game,” outfielder Aaron Hicks mentioned in a video information convention with reporters.
After the ball hit Tanaka, Stanton instantly crouched down and put his hand on his helmet, seemingly upset that he had hit harm his teammate. With the Miami Marlins in 2014, Stanton sustained facial fractures and needed multiple dental procedures when he was hit in the left cheek by a pitch from Mike Fiers, then with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Tanaka eventually sat up and walked off the field with two athletic trainers by his side. Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said Tanaka had concussion-like symptoms before he left the stadium for further evaluation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
Boone said Tanaka’s symptoms dissipated and that he “checked out well” following a battery of tests, including a CT scan. He said Tanaka was expected to be released from the hospital later on Saturday night and would enter the league-mandated concussion protocol.
“It’s incredibly unfortunate what happened today,” Boone said. “In a lot of ways, we’re hopeful we avoided something really bad happening.”
Tanaka, 31, is in his final season of a seven-year, $155 million contract he signed with the Yankees before the 2014 season, in which he was selected as an All-Star. He was also an All-Star in 2019, a season in which he posted a 4.45 earned run average over 182 innings.
Tanaka had been pitching without a so-called L screen, a protective barrier often used during practice sessions. But after seeing Tanaka get hurt, pitcher Jordan Montgomery said he was so shaken up that he requested one, which he had not originally planned on using.
“It’s horrible,” Montgomery said, adding later: “I hope he’s OK. I’m thinking and praying for him right now.”
Last year, the Yankees set a major league record with 30 players spending time on the injured list.
