Báez available one day after fouling ball off forehead
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MIAMI -- Tigers shortstop Javier Báez was available Saturday, one day after exiting Detroit's 8-2 loss to Miami with a head injury. Báez fouled a pitch off his forehead in the second inning, and he had visible bruising in the area on Saturday.
“Javy is doing very well,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said pregame Saturday. “He obviously took a nasty shot to the forehead. There’s still swelling, there’s some bruising around his eye.
“He’s doing his normal activity today, both inside and outside. And it looks like it hurts, but he’s reporting that he’s doing fine. He’s day-to-day, [and] he’s available today, pending him doing a lot of physical activity to get ready for the game. He still feels the same that he did last night.”
Báez went to the ground after the swing, which came on an 0-1 changeup from Sandy Alcantara. A close-up camera angle on Báez showed a large bump forming in the area near his left eyebrow.
He was replaced by Trey Sweeney, who struck out three pitches later. The Tigers revealed postgame that Báez was not under concussion protocol.
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“It was scary,” Hinch said after the game. “Going out there, I didn’t know where it hit him. It was right above his eyebrow. You could see it starting to swell standing over him.
“And he was conscious; he was talking. He wanted to stand up right away, and we took him out to get it looked at. … It never broke skin. There was no blood or anything like that. Depending where it hit him, there’s a lot of damage it could do there."
Báez has served time in the infield and in center field this season. He entered play Saturday hitting .256 with 11 homers and 52 RBIs.
Parker Meadows -- who originally was given Saturday off -- was slated to start in center for Báez. Meadows had previously been on the 60-day IL with a musculocutaneous nerve injury, and he was recently activated from the 10-day IL after a right quad strain.
“He’s feeling great,” Hinch said of Meadows.
“I always have to balance being conservative this time of year … making decisions to get our guys in good position, and this is the way we went today. Talking to Parker, he’s feeling great, which is good.”