An absolutely horrifying sight took place at Surprise Stadium on Wednesday night – Cincinnati Reds closer Aroldis Chapman was hit in the face with a line drive off the bat of Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez. According to reports, Chapman immediately went down and was taken off the field on a stretcher in an ambulance.
Following the incident, the game was immediately called. The scene in Surprise sounded terrifying, with Chapman’s father running to the mound to be with his injured son and the stadium falling eerily quiet.
I’m not even going to speculate on Chapman’s condition – we simply hope it’s not too bad, and that he’ll be lighting up the radar gun in stadiums across the country this year like he has during every game of his major league career.
UPDATE: Chapman reportedly suffered a laceration and a contusion over his left eye and never lost consciousness. That’s really the best we could hope for, though there will likely be further news in the morning.
