Chris Bassitt of the Oakland Athletics was “conscious and aware” on his way to the hospital after being hit in the head by a line drive during Tuesday’s 9-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox.
Bassitt, 32, immediately collapsed after being struck by the ball in the second inning, which came off Brian Goodwin’s bat at 100.1 miles per hour. But according to a tweet by the team, and a statement from Manager Bob Melvin, Bassitt, an All-Star this season, never lost consciousness.
“We don’t think the eye is a problem at this point,” Melvin said. “It felt like it was below it. He’s got some cuts. They had to do some stitches. He’s in a scan and we’ll know more about potential fractures or whatever tomorrow.”
Melvin did not take questions about the play, which came on the 101st anniversary of the death of Ray Chapman, an infielder for Cleveland who was struck by a pitch from New York’s Carl Mays and died a day later from his injuries.
White Sox Manager Tony La Russa said Bassitt’s injury put a “dark cloud around that whole game.” Goodwin wished Bassitt well on Twitter, saying “Chris, you are in my prayers for sure brother.”
Bassitt has been having an outstanding season, with a 12-4 record and 3.22 earned run average in a major league-best 25 starts. It has been a continuation of his success from last year, when he had a 2.29 E.R.A. in the pandemic-shortened season and finished eighth in the American League Cy Young Award voting.
Players for both teams seemed shaken by the play.
“When you see something like that, it’s hard to digest because as a pitcher, we know that that can happen,” Reynaldo Lopez, a pitcher for the White Sox, said through a translator. “It’s like, that could happen to me and it’s scary. Every time you see something like that it is tough to swallow.”
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