NewsWright hit in head, suffers concussion
Mets slugger to stay overnight in hospital; CT scan negative
By Brittany Ghiroli / Special to MLB.com
08/15/09 8:57 PM ET
NEW YORK -- In a season plagued by injury and disappointment, David Wright was the latest Mets player to go down.Wright left Saturday afternoon's 5-4 loss to the Giants in the bottom of the fourth inning after being hit in the helmet with a pitch by Matt Cain. He was in an 0-2 count when Cain's four-seamer struck the left side of his helmet by his ear, and the infielder immediately fell down on his stomach, where he lay motionless until team trainers rushed out. After several minutes, Wright was flipped over and was able to walk off the field under his own power, albeit with some help from the trainers.
Following an exam by team doctors, television cameras showed Wright being taken by ambulance to a hospital midway through the sixth inning. While the CT scan came back negative, Wright was ruled to have a concussion and will stay in the hospital overnight.
"Those are difficult moments for everybody in baseball," said Mets manager Jerry Manuel, who rushed to the batter's box along with several team physicians. "You don't want to see that happen. I think [Cain] was just trying to pitch the ball up and in, and it just got away from him. I don't think or believe there was any intent on his part."
Closeup angles of Cain showed him talking with catcher Brian Schneider while Wright was being examined on the field.
"He just asked how David was, asked if he was doing all right," Schneider said. "And I didn't have an answer for him."
"I've known Matt Cain for a long time," said Jeff Francoeur, who spoke briefly to Cain during the inning and also spoke with Wright before he was transported to the hospital. "Obviously, I'm sure that no one feels worse than he does."
Following the game, a serious and somber Cain told reporters it was nice to see Wright be able to walk off the field.
"Hopefully he'll be all right," Cain said. "I'll try to see if I can get a hold of him [Sunday] or see him on the field."
Fernando Tatis was inserted as a pinch-runner and remained in the game to assume Wright's responsibilities at third base. Wright, who entered the game batting .325 with eight homers and 55 RBIs, flied out to center field in his first at-bat in the first inning.
Television cameras showed Wright saying, "I'm all right," while trying to sit up in the batter's box, and Francoeur noted that Wright was in pretty good spirits in the clubhouse.
"He actually cracked a little bit of a joke," Francoeur said, as Wright quoted a line from the movie "Tommy Boy" when telling his teammate where he got hit. "He was dazed though, you could tell. Just scared. Anytime that happens, it's tough. It's tough to get back in there and get comfortable."
For a Mets team already missing everyday starters Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes, any serious injury to Wright would be catastrophic.
"I don't know what else we can go through, to be honest with you," said starter Johan Santana, who admitted to retaliating by throwing behind Pablo Sandoval in the seventh inning. "Throughout this whole season, it's been crazy for us, and it's not good to see [Wright] going down that way. It's not good at all."
Brittany Ghiroli is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
