SeaWolves 4, RubberDucks 2: Francisco Lindor leaves game after being hit in face by bad-hop ground ball
By August Fagerstrom
Beacon Journal sports writer
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Add This Published: June 25, 2014 - 05:58 PM
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Akron RubberDucks shortstop Francisco Lindor covers his face after a sharp ground ball off the bat of Erie's Devon Travis took a bad hop in the infield and hit Lindor squarely in the face at Canal Park on Wednesday in Akron. (Phil Masturzo/Akron Beacon Journal)
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The RubberDucks ended their Eastern League series against the Erie SeaWolves with a 4-2 loss at Canal Park on Wednesday, but sometimes scores and standings go right out the window at a sporting event when a player’s health comes into question.
Such was the case when a scary moment occurred in the third inning Wednesday. Shortstop Francisco Lindor, the Indians’ top prospect, went to field a routine double-play ball before the grounder took a nasty hop and hit Lindor in the face.
Lindor immediately went facedown to the infield dirt and the RubberDucks’ medical staff rushed out to the 20-year-old phenom’s side. After a couple of minutes on the ground, Lindor, who didn’t want to come out of the game, was able to walk off the field on his own power, albeit with a towel over his face to slow down the flow of blood.
Lindor underwent precautionary X-rays and a CT scan in the clubhouse, the results of which are yet unknown, but RubberDucks manager David Wallace does not believe the injury is anything serious. The good news is that the cause of concern appears to be with Lindor’s nose and not a potential orbital bone fracture.
Another scary moment occurred at the end of the first inning when SeaWolves starting pitcher Warwick Saupold went to back up a throw behind home plate. Saupold slipped and injured his ankle. After a couple of minutes with trainers, he too was able to exit the field on his own power, but did not return.
Despite having to go to their bullpen in the second inning, the SeaWolves (32-43) held the Ducks to two runs on 10 hits.
Anthony Gallas’ RBI single scored Joey Wendle to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead. The Ducks scored again in the second on an RBI single from Jordan Smith that scored Tony Wolters.
Smith led the Ducks (45-33) at the plate, going 3-for-4 and raising his average to .210.
“He’s really working hard on some mechanical adjustments at the plate to shorten up his swing a little bit,” Wallace said. “It’s really nice to see him pull some balls well lately against some pretty good velocity. Those are good signs.”
Part of the reason for the Ducks’ inability to score more runs was going 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position. The other part was running into outs on the base paths, something the Ducks did three times. Lindor got caught in no-man’s land between second and third base when he was unsure whether a line drive would be caught or not. Wendle and Bryan LaHair didn’t have as good of an excuse.
“Poor decisions on LaHair and Wendle, but Lindor there’s not much he could have done,” Wallace said. “I thought he made the right read.”
Will Roberts got the start for the Ducks and dropped to 7-8 after working six innings. He allowed four runs, all earned, on eight hits and two walks. He struck out three.
“I don’t think he felt as good as he has,” Wallace said, “but he worked with what he had [today] and did a great job to keep us in the game. They hit it where we weren’t and that led to a couple runs but we should have been able to put up some more runs than we did.”
The Ducks kick off a four-game series against the Harrisburg Senators at 7:05 tonight at Canal Park. Washington Nationals superstar Bryce Harper will play for the Senators as part of a rehab assignment.
August Fagerstrom can be reached at
afagerstrom@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the RubberDucks blog at
http://www.ohio.com/blogs/rubberducks. Follow August on Twitter at
http://www.twitter.com/AugustF_ABJ.