DETROIT – Marcell Ozuna left Monday’s series opener in Detroit after being hit in the wrist by a pitch in the fourth inning.
After Ozuna’s X-rays came back negative, the Braves said he left the game as a precaution with a right wrist contusion. He is day-to-day.
When reporters were in the clubhouse after the game, Ozuna was at the hospital undergoing further evaluation. An update on that should come on Tuesday.
“You just never know when you get hit in the hand, those little bones and everything,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “A lot of times, they check out good here, then they go CT (scans) and the MRis and all that kind of stuff, and it might show something.”
When Garrett Hill hit Ozuna on the right wrist with a 94 mph sinker, Ozuna was in immediate pain. After walking around the batter’s box for a few moments, Ozuna began the slow walk to first base. On the way, assistant athletic trainer Jeff Stevenson evaluated him. Then Snitker went out, too.
Stevenson grabbed Ozuna’s right hand, as if to be gauging how hard Ozuna could squeeze that hand. Ozuna then began taking off his protective batting gear, but Stevenson had to remove it for him.
“He wasn’t able to get the pad off his arm,” Snitker said. “We just didn’t want to take him out then because we wanted him to run around the bases and check and make sure he couldn’t hit again. He’ll be sore, that’s for sure any time you get in the hand like that.”
Ozuna stayed in the game. He was then forced out on a double play.
In the fifth inning, Travis d’Arnaud pinch-hit for Ozuna.
Michael Harris II didn’t see where the pitch hit Ozuna because he was blocked from his vantage point. But this was his reaction:
“When I saw him stay in, I thought, ‘All right, maybe we’re all right’ And then I saw him come out and it kind of raised some concern then, when I saw him come out.”
Added Raisel Iglesias, through interpreter Franco García: “All you can do is hope for the best, hope he’s OK and hope that he’s in lineup (Tuesday).”
Earlier this season, Orlando Arcia was hit by a pitch in the wrist. His X-rays were negative, but the MRI and CT scan revealed a microfracture.
Ozuna on Monday extended his hitting streak to 10 games when he led off the second inning with a double. He later scored on a sacrifice fly.
Entering Monday, had hit .319 with a 1.020 OPS. During that span, he had five doubles, 11 home runs and 27 RBIs.
This, of course, comes after a brutal slump to begin the season. Ozuna put that behind him and returned to form.
If he misses considerable time, it would be a sizable loss for Atlanta.
“He’s been huge,” Michael Harris II said. “In the clubhouse, he’s great guy. Obviously, everybody saw those little struggles at the beginning. It’s baseball. He was hitting the ball hard and getting out. And now everything’s falling for him and working in his favor.”
