Collision at Home Plate Sends Catcher Jonathan Lucroy to Hospital, Manager Brad Ausmus Cries Foul
A brutal collision at home plate Sunday sent Los Angeles Angels catcher Jonathan Lucroy to the hospital with a concussion and a broken nose.
And Angels manager Brad Ausmus is not happy about, calling for the league to consider a suspension for the man who bowled him over — the Houston Astros’ Jake Marisnick.
The play happened in the bottom of the eighth inning at Minute Maid Park. The score was tied at 10-10 when Marisnick came on as a pinch runner for Yordan Alvarez, who had just hit a two-run single to tie it up.
After a Tyler White single and a Josh Reddick walk, the bases were loaded for George Springer with one out. Springer flew out to right field, but it was deep enough for Marisnick, who was on third, to challenge Kole Calhoun’s arm and try to tag up and score.
Calhoun threw a rope home on one hop that was slightly up the line.
Lucroy moved up to catch it just as Marisnick came barreling at him. Marisnick lowered his shoulder and nailed Lucroy right in the head, knocking the ball loose and sending Lucroy to the ground.
The umpire initially ruled Marisnick safe but after a review reversed the call to call him out for interfering with Lucroy.
Marisnick immediately rushed over after he tagged home plate to see if Lucroy was OK. Lucroy laid still for several moments. He was bleeding from the nose.
Team trainers came out to help him up, and he was carted off the field.
Lucroy was taken to a Houston-area hospital. He texted ESPN that he suffered a concussion and a broken nose but was otherwise OK. He expected to be released from the hospital Monday.
“I watched the play again and it looks — he just drops right in front of me and once I kind of made a decision, it was too late,” Marisnick said, ESPN reported. “It was a bad play and I hope he’s OK.” Marisnick said he planned to reach out to Lucroy.
Angels manager Brad Ausmus said the league should consider taking action against Marisnick.
“It certainly didn’t look like a clean play,” Ausmus said, ESPN reported. “I don’t know what actually happened, but it looked like Marisnick took a step to the left and bowled into him with his arm up. The call was right. Really, I think Major League Baseball should probably take a look at it. Consider some type of suspension, quite frankly.”
“MLB should probably take a look at it and consider some type of suspension,” Brad Ausmus on Jake Marisnick’s collision with Jonathan Lucroy https://t.co/wyV5jmixpi
— SI MLB (@si_mlb) July 8, 2019
There was no word from the league on whether they were conducting a further review or considering a suspension.
St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina also cried foul in a profanity-laced post on Instagram.
“Bulls—!!! MLB need to take action on this bulls— play! F—! Praying for Lucroy! slide slide slide f— !!!” Molina wrote.
Astros manager A.J. Hinch vouched for his player.
“I don’t fault Jake because he wasn’t hunting him, he wasn’t going after him,” Hinch said, ESPN reported. “He tried to take a step on where Lucroy was going to go, and it’s difficult in that little 1-3 foot circle where you’re trying to figure out going at full speed what’s going to happen. It just turned out to be an ugly play.”
The Astros won the game 11-10 in 10 innings.
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