The sound of it was sickening.
On April 15, in the top of the sixth inning of a game in Pittsburgh, Washington Nationals third baseman Paul DeJong faced Pirates starter Mitch Keller with two outs and the bases empty. The count was 2 balls, 1 strike, and Keller, a right-hander, threw a 92.7 mph four-seam fastball that never came close to its intended target, instead sailing up and inside, hitting DeJong square in the face, just below his left eye.
Smack!
The ball deflected towards the first base dugout. DeJong immediately spun and went down to the ground, while Keller crouched on the mound, first staring off into space, not being able to look at the carnage, and then with his head in his glove.
DeJong was able to walk off the field, with a broken nose and a noticeable gash under his eye. The 31-year-old former St. Louis Cardinals shortstop was immediately sent to the emergency room of a local hospital, where stitches were used to stop the bleeding in his cheek, nose and eye. He spent that night at the hospital for observation, but amazingly, DeJong said he was never in any pain.
“It was so strange,” he said. “It was the most uncomfortable feeling without pain. I couldn’t breathe through my nose. My eyes were swollen shut. I had that ringing in my ears. But I didn’t have pain.”
DeJong was released from the hospital the following day, spent that night at the team hotel, then got a four-hour ride to his home in Falls Church, VA. On April 28, after the swelling had gone down, DeJong underwent 2½ hours of surgery to repair his nose and sinuses and insert a titanium orbital plate.
But DeJong said he knows the situation could have been much worse.
“I was lucky,” he said. “If I had gotten hit straight into my jaw, my eye, or my mouth, there could have been real problems."
The problem for DeJong now is that he basically is supposed to do nothing while he heals. Doctors have informed the team that DeJong should be able to resume baseball activities in about a month. After a slow buildup of workouts, it will be off to rehab assignments, and then it is expected that DeJong will be ready to return to the team around the All-Star break.
Which DeJong said can't get here soon enough.
“I can’t wait to get back, and it’s going to be special when I do,” he said.
Birds of a Different Feather Struggle in Baltimore
It’s been a rough stretch recently for a trio of former Cardinals currently with the Baltimore Orioles.
On April 26, the Orioles placed outfielder Tyler O’Neill on the 10-day injured list due to neck inflammation. In the 10 games prior to that move, O’Neill had just three hits, one of them a homer, in 36 at bats as his average, which was .571 on the last day of March, had dropped to .215.
Dylan Carlson was called up from Triple-A Norfolk to take O’Neill’s place on the 26-man roster, but Carlson, who signed a one-year, $975,000 deal with Baltimore in late January, has not been able to provide any offense.
After a brief two-game stint with the Orioles at the beginning of the season, during which Carlson went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, he was sent to Norfolk, where he batted .286 in 18 games before the recall. However, in his eight at bats since returning, Carlson has no hits and two more strikeouts.
Meanwhile, Kyle Gibson, who signed a one-year, $5.25 million deal with Baltimore about a week before opening day, finally worked his way into the Orioles rotation, but to less-than-impressive results.
In his first start at home against the Yankees on April 29, Gibson lasted just 3.2 innings, giving up 11 hits, including five home runs, and nine earned runs as the Orioles fell 15-3. Gibson became the first Orioles pitcher to allow nine runs, 11 hits and five homers in a game, and in an interesting oddity, the five homers allowed, which was a career high for Gibson, came on five different pitches: four-seam fastball, cutter, sinker, changeup and curveball.
“Obviously not how I wanted the first one to go,” Gibson said afterwards.
“Just a weird instance where some of [the pitches] were bad location. A couple of them weren’t. I’ll go back and look at it and try to see if I was doing something or getting in a pattern. But yeah, physically, I felt good, and that’s kind of the frustrating thing — when you feel good physically and the results don’t show that.”
The results were better in Gibson’s second start, but still not very good. On Sunday, Gibson allowed three runs on five hits, including another homer, and one walk with three strikeouts over four innings. The 37-year-old took a no-decision in Baltimore’s 11-6 loss.
O’Neill, who was eligible to return from the IL on Sunday, is expected to be back this week needing no rehab time.