LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Braves minor league manager Luis Salazar regained consciousness and was breathing on his own Wednesday night after being hit in the face by a foul ball hours earlier during a 6-1 Grapefruit League loss against St. Louis.
Salazar, 54, was hit by a line drive off the bat of Braves catcher Brian McCann while standing in the dugout in the first inning at Champion Stadium. He was unconscious for at least 20 minutes, and some players and others in the dugout feared he was dead.
Salazar has multiple facial fractures and damage to his left eye, but brain damage had been ruled out, according to a Braves spokesman. No further updates were expected until Thursday.
Salazar was able to answer doctors' questions and was resting Wednesday night at Orlando Regional Medical Center, accompanied by his wife, Graciela, son, Carlos, and by McCann.
“I’ve really never, in baseball, been through a situation where I felt it was as serious at the time," Braves general manager Frank Wren said. "[We] just feel very fortunate and feel blessed that Luis is alive, and that he’s responding and able to communicate with his family and talk."
McCann was so shaken by the incident that he left the game before the second inning. He went to the hospital with Braves doctor Joe Chandler and player-development director Kurt Kemp.
Before they left, a Florida State trooper went to the Braves clubhouse to tell McCann that Salazar was breathing on his own again and had regained consciousness during the helicopter ride to the hospital.
"He was pretty torn up about it," third baseman Chipper Jones said of McCann. "I think we all were. At that point, we all would have been better served to probably go home. You really didn’t feel like playing after experiencing something like that."
Salazar is entering his first season in the Braves organization as manager of the high-Class A affiliate in Lynchburg, Va. He has been in major league camp as a coach and was standing near the railing in the Braves dugout with other coaches and players when the left-handed-hitting McCann pulled a line drive that hit him flush on the left side of his face.
Salazar fell from the fifth step and landed face-first on the dugout floor, his body limp from the moment the ball hit him. He bled extensively and was unresponsive.
“He was bleeding from [his nose] and his mouth, too," pitcher Rodrigo Lopez said. "It was bad. I’ve never seen anything like that. It was real, real bad.”
Jones, on first base when the incident occurred, said it was the worst injury he had seen.
"It was awful," he said. "I knew that it hit him in the head. Obviously you worry about somebody’s life at that point. At that close a range. If you see it’s down in the jaw or the back of the head or something, that’s better than up around the eyes and the nose and the temple."
Salazar lay motionless during a 14-minute delay in the game and was attended to by medics and given oxygen. Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols said he could not bear to look in the dugout because he was told that Salazar wasn't breathing.
For the eerily quiet 14 minutes, Braves players stood by as Salazar was surrounded by trainers, medics and security guards. At one point, a player turned away with his hand over his face.
Jones said that he and others feared the worst as Salazar lay motionless in the dugout.
"A ball hit that hard, at that short a distance, can certainly kill somebody if it hits them in the right spot," Jones said. "I’m so glad to hear that he’s conscious and breathing on his own. There were some times where there were worried looks on some paramedics’ faces."
