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A’s Pitcher Brandon McCarthy Took A Line Drive Off The Head, And It Was Terrifying

If you’re a baseball fan, there’s a pretty good chance you know who A’s pitcher Brandon McCarthy is for a couple different reasons. One, over the last couple seasons, he’s been a pretty damn good starter, posting ERAs of 3.32 last year and 3.10 in 2012, entering today’s game. And on top of that, he’s one of the very best athlete tweeters, preferring to mostly use the medium as an outlet for various (good!) observational comedic musings.

Unfortunately, if you know of McCarthy, you also might know he can’t catch a break, health-wise – and an injury he suffered today that knocked him out of a start against the Angels constituted one of the scariest scenes of the season. In the top of the fourth inning, the Angels’ Erick Aybar hit a line drive back at the mound that caught McCarthy right in the head. Needless to say, a hush fell over the entire stadium immediately. Getting hit in the head with a liner is about the scariest thing that can happen to a pitcher, and McCarthy stayed down for a while.

Thankfully, though, he sat up… and eventually, walked off the field under his own power, drawing a relieved ovation from the home crowd. He was then taken to nearby Alta Bates Summit Medical Center as a precautionary measure. Hopefully, that visit will confirm what McCarthy walking off the field on his own seemed to indicate: that he escaped serious injury. Here’s hoping he’s pitching – and tweeting – again soon. Video of the incident (up through McCarthy leaving the field) below.

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