Ward slammed face-first into the wall whereas chasing a liner hit by Houston’s Ramon Urias within the eighth inning. Whereas Urias motored into second, Ward instantly received up and waved towards the Angels dugout for assist as blood poured down his face.
Relievers Andrew Chafin and Kenley Jansen ran out of the Angels’ bullpen with towels to help Ward. The competition was delayed practically 10 minutes as trainers and paramedics attended to Ward.
Angels interim supervisor Ray Montgomery was not sure whether or not Ward sustained a concussion and was hopeful that he didn’t damage his eye. Ward held a towel over his proper eye whereas being handled.
“The one saving grace was that he was completely relaxed when he hit it,” Montgomery instructed reporters after the 3-0 victory. “He didn’t, like, brace himself and it appeared like one thing on the wall could have clipped his eye or minimize his eye. I’m hoping he’s advantageous.”
Fellow Angels outfielder Jo Adell was extremely important of the Houston ballpark. Adell was injured in September 2021 whereas colliding with the identical portion of the wall.
“He’s doing what he’s alleged to do,” Adell instructed reporters. “He’s being aggressive on a play. On the backside line, and I’ve talked about this earlier than, however there must be no out-of-town metallic scoreboard wherever on the baseball subject. It’s the large leagues. This (expletive) is ridiculous. A man goes again to make a play, and he’s received to fret a few metallic fence. That’s loopy. In order that’s my sincere opinion about it. He did every little thing he may to make a play, and he will get beat up by one thing that’s past controllable.
“I pulled an indirect on it. I hit my head. I missed a month and a half of the season. At what level is it simply not acceptable anymore? I don’t know. In my view.”
Ward was 0-for-1 with three walks on Sunday. He has established profession bests of 30 homers and 94 RBIs regardless of a meager .228 batting common.
20 Years OfFreeJournalism
Your Assist Fuels Our Mission
Your Assist Fuels Our Mission
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
This isn’t Ward’s first facial damage. He was drilled within the face by a pitch from Alek Manoah of the Toronto Blue Jays on July 29, 2023.
Ward sustained three damaged facial bones and missed the remainder of the season. He later instructed reporters that he underwent reconstructive facial surgical procedure and had two plates inserted. He later had one other plate inserted into his cranium.
