Look: MLB Player Takes Nasty Cleats to the Face, Somehow Shakes it Off

By Dave Kovaleski July 30, 2018 at 12:56pm

Talk about kicking a man when he’s down.

Well, it wasn’t on purpose, but Texas Rangers shortstop Jurickson Profar got a face full of cleats from Astros second baseman Yuli Gurriel after sliding into second base Sunday night.

In the sixth inning with Roughned Odor on second, Profar hit a come-backer up the middle that ricocheted off the leg of pitcher Lance McCullers and bounced out into left field.

.@JURICKSONPROFAR takes a cleat to the face, but stays in the game. He's tough. He's a baseball player. pic.twitter.com/ONwj3iRmt5

— Cut4 (@Cut4) July 29, 2018

Odor scored on the play easily, but left fielder Tony Kemp tried to nail Profar, who was trying to stretch it into a double.

Gurriel was late covering second on the broken play and Profar slid in for a double.

After Gurriel caught the ball, he lost his balance and began falling backward. As he tried to keep his balance, he planted his cleat right in the side of Profar’s face.

Ouch! 😣

Rangers' Jurickson Profar takes a cleat to the face while sliding into second base | #TexasRangers

Full gallery here 👉: https://t.co/mG7CpRfTZ6 pic.twitter.com/YFicDaHHn8

— SportsDay Rangers (@dmn_rangers) July 30, 2018

Gurriel immediately got up and went to Profar to see if he was OK. Profar got up holding his face, not quite sure what hit him.

Profar left the game briefly and returned moments later with a bandage on his face, just under his left eye.

"That's how we play, we all play like that…we feed off of each other"

Following a sweep of the defending World Champions, Jurickson Profar gives major credit to his team for working hard, trying to get better every day, and having fun!#TexasRangers pic.twitter.com/fc7MieYbtp

— Bally Sports Southwest (@BallySportsSW) July 29, 2018

Will the Rangers deal Adrian Beltre before Tuesday's trade deadline?

Two batters later, Profar advanced to third on a wild pitch to Isiah Kiner-Falefa and then scored on a Gurriel fielding error.

The Rangers won the game 4-3 to complete a three-game weekend sweep of the AL West-leading Astros.

Profar went 2-for-4 to lead the Rangers.

“I’m doing good,” Profar said after the game. “I saw that there was nobody at second base, that’s why I kept going, to avoid the throw going to home. And I think he hit me with his spikes.”

Mike Minor (7-6) got the win while McCullers (10-6) took the loss.

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Tags:

Houston Astros, MLB

Dave Kovaleski

Contributor, Sports

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Dave is a lifelong sports fan who has been writing for The Wildcard since 2017. He has been a writer for more than 20 years for a variety of publications.

Dave has been writing about sports for The Wildcard since 2017. He's been a reporter and editor for over 20 years, covering everything from sports to financial news. In addition to writing for The Wildcard, Dave has covered mutual funds for Pensions and Investments, meetings and conventions, money market funds, personal finance, associations, and he currently covers financial regulations and the energy sector for Macallan Communications. He has won awards for both news and sports reporting.

Location

Massachusetts

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English

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Sports