Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jimmy Nelson suffered a head injury after being hit by a line drive against the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night and is currently in the hospital.
Continue for updates.
Nelson’s Next Start in Question
Friday, Sept. 18
Adam McCalvy of MLB.com reported Nelson will remain in the hospital for the second-straight night while recovering from being hit by a line drive in the head Thursday night. Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Nelson is already raring to go, but the team will wait 48 hours before deciding if he can make his next start on Tuesday.
According to D.J. Short of NBC Sports’ Hardball Talk, Nelson was hit on the right side of the head by a line drive off the bat of the Cardinals’ Tommy Pham in the top of the third inning.
MLB.com provided video of the play:
According to Short, the exit velocity of the ball when it left Pham’s bat was 108 mph. Nelson fell face down onto the mound, where he remained for a moment before rising to his knees. He was able to walk off the field.
Milwaukee third baseman Elian Herrera had to retrieve the ball after it hit Nelson. Herrera commented on his mindset, per McCalvy: “Really, really scary for me. What I saw was the ball hit right in his face. I worry for all my teammates, and when something like that happens, I was just praying for him to be OK.”
He wasn’t the only one worried. Pham barely remembered to run, as relayed by McCalvy: “Line drive like that and you see it go off his head, the first thing that went through my head was if he was all right. I had to kind of remind myself to run. That’s the first time that’s happened to me. It is kind of a big shocker.”
Entering the game, Nelson was 11-12 this season with a 3.95 ERA on a struggling Brewers team unfortunate enough to compete in one of the best divisions in baseball, the National League Central.
Numbers aside, situations like these are certainly unnerving for pitchers and players alike around MLB. It’s promising to see that Nelson was responding well while leaving the park in what was a scary few moments on the mound.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com