DETROIT – Jose Miranda lay face-down in the batter’s box, barely moving, as Twins manager Rocco Baldelli and athletic trainer Nick Paparesta rushed toward him.
Twins’ Jose Miranda appears to escape serious injury after getting hit in helmet by a pitch
A 95-mph fastball in the first inning Sunday at Detroit hit the Twins’ Jose Miranda squarely in the helmet, knocking him out of the game.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
July 29, 2024 at 12:17AM
“It’s very scary when you see that,” Baldelli said of Miranda, who was hit just below his left ear by a 95-mph fastball from Detroit’s Alex Faedo in the first inning Sunday. “He was hit pretty squarely. That was not a glancing blow. He was struck pretty hard.”
The impact knocked Miranda’s helmet 20 feet away and left the Twins third baseman on the ground for several minutes before he finally rose and walked slowly off the field with Paparesta’s help.
As bad as it looked, though, Miranda seemed to have survived surprisingly well, happily eating a chicken dinner in the visitors clubhouse after the Twins won 5-0.
“Preliminary tests have him negative for anything concussion-related,” Baldelli said. “But we’re going to have to keep an eye on him over the next 24 hours. It can still shake you up in some ways, and affect even different parts of your body and upper extremities. Overall, we might have avoided something very serious. So we’ll take that and keep an eye on him.”
It’s the fifth time Miranda has been hit by a pitch this season, and the 74th time a Twin has been plunked, by far the most in the major leagues. Cleveland is second in the majors, having been hit by 65 pitches.
At their current pace, the Twins would be hit 115 times by the end of the season, which would break the major league record of 112 held by the 2022 Mets.
Sharp eye
Carlos Santana’s fifth-inning popup drifted foul, but it didn’t quite reach the stands. Tigers first baseman Bligh Madris raced over and caught the ball on the run, his momentum carrying him into the screen that protects fans from foul balls.
Umpire Andy Fletcher signaled out, the third of the inning, and the Tigers jogged off the field.
But inside the Twins clubhouse, replay coordinator Joey Casey thought he noticed something that few people on the field had picked up: The ball glanced off the screen as it descended, making it a dead ball.
“I didn’t see it. Almost no one did. But Joey, inside, saw it fairly clearly,” said Baldelli, who quickly notified Fletcher that he wanted to challenge the call. “Their guys jogged in, thinking it was a clean catch. But you could see the net move.”
That was the first clue, though that’s not enough to overturn the call. And when the video was shown on the Comerica Park scoreboard, it was nearly impossible to detect. But one angle showed that the ball was the reason for that movement, and the video replay umpire in New York ruled the ball foul.
The reprieve for Santana turned out to be anticlimactic; he grounded out on the next pitch. But Baldelli was happy that such a difficult-to-detect play had been noticed. “Joey said he saw it, and he did see it,” Baldelli said. “It was a very good challenge from him.”
Correa improving
The Twins currently have no plans to fly Carlos Correa to New York for the series vs. the Mets, but Baldelli said they are pleased with the progress their shortstop is making back at Target Field as he recovers from plantar fasciitis in his right foot.
Correa, on the injured list since the season resumed July 20, completed one-hand swings with no pain in his foot, the team announced. He also went through a regimen of foot and ankle exercises and upper-body weightlifting, and he reported feeling good by the end. He is no longer wearing the protective boot on his foot, and he expects to continue ramping up his workouts.
Etc.
• Some Twins players with kids said they were disturbed by the sight of two children being handcuffed and led away after running on the field during Friday’s game. According to Comerica Park security members, the father of the children, ages 9 and 13, had encouraged them to run across the outfield between innings, and he was filming them when they did. He now faces a trespassing fine of as much as $2,500.
• Louie Varland gave up three runs on two homers in five innings and the Saints lost 9-1 to Omaha at CHS Field. Between the Twins and Saints, Varland is 3-12 with a 5.69 ERA this season.
Bailey Ober gave up just one hit through seven scoreless innings, but Kansas City scored four runs off the Twins bullpen to push Minnesota further back in the standings.
