ESNY/YESNetwork/TwitterThat’s gonna hurt in the morning.
To be honest, I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often in baseball – the helmets only seem to cover half their head after all. But I’m English so don’t really know the ins and outs of the game.
By the looks of this video though, you’ve got to have more than a stiff upper lip to face a 91 mph pitch.
Yankees batter and first baseman Luke Voit, however, managed to take it on the chin in every sense of the phrase.
Check it out:
A scary moment in the bottom of the fourth, but take a deep breath Yankees fans. The Yankees have announced that Luke Voit was removed from today’s game for precautionary reasons and underwent concussion protocol testing. Those test results came back clear. pic.twitter.com/s92l7K6Y7z
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) July 20, 2019
The ball to face incident occurred during this weekend’s game, July 20, between the New York Yankees and the Colorado Rockies.
Voit was up to bat at the bottom of the fourth, where the Yankees were up 6-0, when pitcher Chris Bettis hurled down a 91 mph fastball. The pitch strayed closer to the batter than usual, and ending up striking Voit straight on the chin.
Amazingly, Voit avoided a serious injury (an inch or two higher and that nose would’ve been gone!), and he even managed to take his place at first base afterwards.
Check out the slo-mo:
Luke Voit took a 92mph fastball to the face 😱 pic.twitter.com/4VSNgObaGD
— Baseball Lifestyle™ (@BsbLifestyle__) July 20, 2019
Aaron Boone, manager of the Yankees, rushed out right away to check on Voit, as TMZ reports. However, after Voit checked his jaw, gave it a quick rub and wiped his lips, he carried on with the game.
Later in the game, unperturbed, Voit stepped up to bat again and got to third base.
When the Yankees were up by around eight or nine runs, Voit was eventually taken out of the game and evaluated for concussion, but was soon given the all clear.
PAYankees catcher Austin Romine told the NY Post:
It doesn’t surprise me [that Luke stayed in the game initially]. I don’t think it surprises you guys either. If you know Luke, he’s going to play the game. The guy is like a bull out there. Just very happy it wasn’t worse than it was, that was some dangerous stuff going on up by the face. I think he kind of dodged a bullet there not getting it too bad.
While it may seem like frustration caused Bettis to pitch the ball towards Voit’s face, Romine added: ‘A lot of balls turn up and in. Any team is going to get a little frustrated at that point. It’s over with, we won, moving on.’
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.