Flowers’ swollen forearm looked a lot worse than it was

With the bases loaded, the Atlanta Braves' Tyler Flowers is hit by a pitch from the San Diego Padres' Phil Maton during the sixth inning at Petco Park Wednesday, June 28. 2017, in San Diego.

Credit: Hayne Palmour IV

Credit: Hayne Palmour IV

With the bases loaded, the Atlanta Braves' Tyler Flowers is hit by a pitch from the San Diego Padres' Phil Maton during the sixth inning at Petco Park Wednesday, June 28. 2017, in San Diego.

SAN DIEGO – Tyler Flowers’ arm injury looked worse than it was, and that’s good because it looked hideous indeed.

The Braves catcher was struck in his lower left forearm by a pitch with bases loaded in the sixth inning, one of the more painful RBIs imaginable. Almost immediately, a welt rose that was so big, it looked like an egg might burst through his skin.

“It wasn’t an egg, it was like a softball that was welting up (above) his wrist,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.

Flower said, “The look kind of freaked me out too. You hear stories about breaking your arm and it just being numb or something. But I was able to move it around OK. I think it looked a lot worse than it is. Not that it feels good, but it looked pretty grotesque.”

He added that bench coach Eddie Perez “was freaking out” at the appearance of Flowers’ arm.

Flowers took his base on the hit-by-pitch and finished the half-inning, but immediately signaled from first base to catcher Kurt Suzuki to be ready to take over in the bottom of the inning, which Suzuki did.

“Both of us get hit so much, we just kind of expect the other person to stay in there the whole time,” Flowers said. “I was just letting him know this wasn’t going to be one of those times.”

The Braves’ catchers have an inexplicable number of hit-by-pitches – 12 for Flowers and eight for Suzuki, accounting for more than half of the team total (39).

Braves trainers wrapped Flowers’ arm in a compression sleeve after he came out of the game, and the swelling had been reduced by nearly half by the time he was interviewed a half-hour after the game. He didn’t have any problem tying his shoes and said strength tests ruled out any break or other serious injury.

“I think probably a day (out of the lineup),” Flowers said. “Just depending upon how much we can get that (swelling) out of there.”