As if this final road series of 2013 wasn’t already bad enough – the O’s needed to at least split with Tampa in the four-game set to keep their AL Wild Card hopes alive, but lost the first three games of the series – it just got a whole, whole lot worse.
In the top of the 7th inning of Monday’s afternoon game, Manny Machado rolled a slow ground ball toward second base. Tampa first baseman Sean Rodriguez broke toward the ball, and as he strayed from the base it became apparent that Machado would have an infield hit.
However, second baseman Tim Beckham kicked the ball when he fielded it, and it started to roll into right field just as Machado was reaching first. When this happened, it appeared to catch Manny’s attention, and distracted him from the task at hand – that is, stepping on first base.
As he watched the ball roll away, he kicked first base awkwardly, and his left leg twisted. It looked like his left foot was sideways or backwards, and he immediately rolled to the ground clutching it.
As cameras zoomed in on his face, it was obvious that Machado was in a great deal of pain.
It was pretty much the worst fear of every member of Birdland – everyone from ownership, to management, to players, fans, ushers, and hot dog vendors held our collective breath.
It never got any better…Machado was carted off the field.
Here’s a GIF of the incident, in case you’d like to see (warning: NOT for the squeamish)
This is just awful.
Completely devastating as an Orioles fan. As we wait for news on Machado, all we can do is hope for a full and speedy recovery for one of the game’s brightest young stars.
Ugh. This just….this sucks.
2 Responses
I like how there’s a blank after “second baseman” where the player’s name should be. Really?
Darn, I had updated that hours ago. Guess it didn’t take, for whatever reason. Thanks for pointing it out. Fixed.
Beckham. It was Beckham.