The Philadelphia Phillies had a nice, productive outing against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday.
Riding the emotional wave of surviving the Mountain on Friday, Philadelphia’s bats and pitching collaborated to lay down a 6-0 blanking of Arizona, completing a three-game homestand sweep of its Western guests.
It was mostly a heartening performance, save for a weird accident that left pitcher Sean O’Sullivan massaging a bruised jugular.
After sailing a fastball in the top of the sixth, O’Sullivan took a moment to rue his rotten luck and pound his glove. In this moment, catcher Cameron Rupp threw the ball back to his unprepared pitcher, who caught it flush in the Adam’s apple.
And here it is, the face you make after taking a baseball to the throat:
Fortunately, O’Sullivan was uninjured and managed to close out the inning.
After the game, he told the media the shot had felt like a full-on sucker punch to the neck, per the Philadelphia Daily News‘ David Murphy:
It’s like I got punched in the throat from around the corner. It was kind of shocking. And then I realized, ‘OK, I can’t breathe and there’s runners on base so I have to go get this ball and then hope someone calls time out real fast.’ But after a couple minutes, it kind of eased up a little bit.
On the bright side, O’Sullivan earned the win with six scoreless innings pitched and sealed the Phillies’ sweep of the Diamondbacks.
Head on a swivel, guys.
Dan is on Twitter. Hell is a baseball to the throat.
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