Ward exits after being hit in face by pitch

TORONTO — In a scary scene, Angels left fielder Taylor Ward was hit within the head by a 91.7 mph sinker from Alek Manoah and needed to be carted off the sphere within the fifth inning of Saturday afternoon’s recreation at Rogers Centre.

With the bases loaded with one out and a 2-0 rely, Ward was struck close to his left eye, knocking his helmet off his head. Ward instantly went to the bottom and was tended to by third-base coach Bill Hassleman, appearing supervisor Ray Montgomery and head athletic coach Mike Frostad.

Ward remained on the bottom and was given a towel, as he was bleeding from his face. After roughly 5 minutes, a cart was introduced in from middle discipline. Ward was in a position to sit up on the cart underneath his personal energy, which was a great signal and brought about the followers to applaud. But Ward’s left eye appeared swollen as he was taken off the sphere.

The hit-by-pitch introduced within the first run of the sport for the Angels and was additionally the final pitch thrown by Manoah. Lefty Génesis Cabrera relieved Manoah, hanging out Mike Moustakas and getting Matt Thaiss to come out to finish the inning.

Losing Ward for any period of time could be an enormous blow for the Angels, as he’s been considered one of their hottest hitters and fellow outfielder Mike Trout is out till a minimum of mid-August after present process surgical procedure to take away his left hamate bone. Ward has hit .304/.424/.623 with 5 homers, seven doubles and 17 RBIs in 20 video games in July.

Luis Rengifo moved from shortstop to left discipline to exchange Ward, whereas Andrew Velazquez took over at shortstop after getting into to pinch-run.