Cronenworth gets smoked in the face before game, then smokes HR in first AB!
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SAN DIEGO -- Jake Cronenworth had himself an eventful evening on Tuesday -- and all before the end of the first inning.
An hour or two before first pitch against the Diamondbacks, Cronenworth was struck in the face by a baseball while taking ground balls. He suffered a bloody nose, but would remain in the starting lineup -- he then proceeded to commit a costly first-inning error that led to an Arizona run. And then …
Well, Cronenworth made up for all of that with one swing.
He launched a three-run homer inside the right-field foul pole at Petco Park, giving the Padres a 4-1 lead in the first.
Cronenworth has had a rough go of it this season. He was hit by a pitch in the face in April, which cost him two months as he dealt with concussion symptoms. That made Tuesday’s pregame incident particularly scary.
He was treated by medical staff on the field, then reassessed in the trainer’s room before he was cleared to play.
Cronenworth has largely struggled at the plate this season. He entered play Tuesday hitting .179 with a .528 OPS. But some of those early struggles can be attributed to the fact that he played through concussion symptoms after he was hit by the pitch, going 4-for-31 in that span.
Since his return, Cronenworth has looked a whole lot more like his old self. He was 9-for-27 (.333) with a pair of homers, including Tuesday’s first-inning blast.