Cano day to day after getting hit in the helmet by a pitch
Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano is considered day to day after being hit in the head by a pitch in last night’s 4-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals. CT scans were negative.
This all occurred in the fifth inning of last night’s eleven inning thriller at Yankee Stadium. With two outs and a 1-1 count, Royals reliever Nate Adcock drilled Cano in the side of the head with a 93 MPH fastball, knocking his helmet clean off.
Cano sat on the ground for several seconds before finally walking over to first base with the help of assistant athletic trainer Gene Donahue. He appeared to be fine, but for precautionary measures Donahue suggested that Yankee manager Joe Girardi pull Cano from the game.
Girardi agreed, and Cano was replaced by a pinch-runner Eduardo Nunez, who finished the rest of the game at second base.
In the very next inning, Yankees starter A.J. Burnett threw a pitch up and in to Royals right fielder Jeff Francoeur, catching him around the shoulder. Believing Burnett was attempting to retaliate for Adcock’s pitch to Cano, home-plate umpire Ed Rapuano warned both benches.
Both Burnett and Adcock said the pitches weren’t intentional and just simply got away from them. Thankfully, Cano will not be out for very long and no serious injury was attainted from the hit. Francoeur, who merely got hit in the shoulder, was fine and played throughout the rest of the game.
Last night’s incident showed why hits to the helmet are so dangerous. Not only can they severely injure a player, they most of the time see intentional, which will most likely cause a backlash to follow.
Unfortunately, hit batsmen are an unfortunate risk in the game of baseball, because pitching inside is part of the game. I do not think that either batter that was hit last night was intentional, and that it was just an unfortunate occurrence.