The baseball world held its collective breath for Big Papi on Wednesday.
During the Red Sox game against the Yankees, David Ortiz, who is in the final season of his career, fouled a 99 mph fastball from New York flame-thrower Dellin Betances off of his right shin and appeared to be in significant pain.
Ortiz, who is having a great swang song season, is listed as day-to-day after x-rays came back negative, so his final season won't end with a whimper.
"My heart sunk a little bit when I saw it, but fortunately, I just saw him back there," Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said, according to MLB.com. "He's doing much better. It's not broken. He looks like he's moving around pretty good right now, considering how he was. Before, we had to carry him off, basically, but he's now walking. He's standing around on his own. It hit off him solid, but he's doing much better."
Ortiz appeared to be in significant pain after the foul ball and had to be helped off the field by Red Sox manager John Farrell and a trainer. With his exit from the game, fear grew that the magical final season of Ortiz would end with an injury at Fenway Park and even his teammates were left concerned.
"I felt bad for him," said Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts. "It was 99 mph. ... That's something that's not very nice, and especially to lose a player like that for an extended period of time wouldn't be good for us."
The slugger couldn't finish the at-bat and Bryce Brentz took over the plate appearance. Brentz struck out, but it was charged to Ortiz.
Ortiz, 30, is batting .307 this season with 25 homers, while his 88 RBIs rank second in the American League. Ortiz also ranks first in the MLB in doubles (36), slugging percentage (.612) and OPS (1.012) and fourth in the AL in on-base percentage (.400).
The Red Sox enter Thursday with a 61-51 record, trailing the first-place Blue Jays (65-50) by 2 1/2 games and hold a one-game lead over the Tigers (61-53) for the final AL Wild Card spot. Boston also trails Baltimore (63-50) by 1 1/2 games for the top Wild Card spot.
Ortiz owns a .285/.379/.550 slash line in his career with 528 homers and 1,729 RBIs. Luckily after Wednesday night's scare, he'll have the opportunity to add on to these numbers.
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