While September was taking shape to be a month when the Los Angeles Dodgers would welcome back players from injury, they instead have been snakebit over the past week. The latest scare came with Joc Pederson crashing into the wall in right field after making a terrific catch.
Pederson’s play robbed Charlie Blackmon of a home run but also sent him down to the ground in a heap of pain. The impact from colliding with the wall sent Pederson’s sunglasses and cap flying as he writhed in pain.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and a trainer ran to the outfielder corner to check on Pederson, who eventually rose to his feet and walked off the field under his own power. The Dodgers later announced he was removed due to an abdominal contusion.
Given preliminary examinations of Max Muncy’s right wrist left him diagnosed with a contusion, only for an MRI to reveal a fracture, there was reason to wonder if Pederson sustained a more serious injury as well.
Though, that concern was put to bed. “I’m pretty sure there aren’t any broken ribs, so I’m doing alright, feeling a lot better,” Pederson said after the Dodgers’ 16-9 win.
Pederson momentarily lost feeling in his arm but said the larger issue was being out of breath and a strange pain. “I got the wind knocked out of me and like a weird cramps thing in my oblique and ribcage areas, so they were a little concerned. But so far, so good,” he said.
“Right when I hit it, it was mostly just the wind knocked out of me. But then I couldn’t really move my arm, so that part wasn’t that good. I think like a normal collision, your body protects it. Everything was right in the oblique area.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts deemed Pederson day-to-day after avoiding serious injury. “Right now, I’m leaning towards giving him a day to recover and getting him back in there Wednesday, but we’ll see,” Roberts added. Pederson did not go an X-ray or any scans.
The violent collision was seemingly all that could slow the 27-year-old. Coming off a game-winning home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Pederson led off the first inning with a longball that cut the Rockies’ lead in half.
He followed it up with an RBI double off the top of the same wall he would later become too familiar with, and hit a home run in his third at-bat. “I’ve been hitting the ball well, so it feels good,” Pederson said.
