There was a scary moment in Wednesday afternoon's series finale between the Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees (NYY 4, CLE 3) at Progressive Field. Second base umpire Larry Vanover was hit in the head by a relay throw from Guardians second baseman Andrés Giménez in the fifth inning, and had to leave the game.
Here's the play. It's a classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time:
Umpire Chris Guccione told reporters, including the Associated Press, Vanover had a "pretty good-sized knot" on his head, and he was unaware he had been hit by a baseball. Vanover had to be helped off the field and is undergoing tests at a nearby hospital.
"They're going to do a concussion test and it sounded like he was coherent and that he knew kind of what was going on," Guccione told the Associated Press. "But he did have that glazed look on him. He's going to be at the hospital for the rest of the night maybe. That was scary. Very hard to focus after that after you see a colleague get hit. But they gave me updates and I was like, 'Alright. He's good. He's in safe hands.' So, we moved on."
Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka hit a ball over center fielder Myles Straw's head and two runs scored on the play. Officially, Giménez was charged with an error, so it goes as a single for Higashioka and he advance to second on the error.
The Yankees and Guardians finished Wednesday's game, which included some instant replay weirdness in the first inning, with three umpires after Vanover exited with the injury.
