Gomez OK after comebacker to ribs in Bucs debut

LOS ANGELES -- Jeanmar Gomez, who pitched effectively and fielded daringly in his Pirates debut Friday night, escaped serious injury when he made a body catch of Adrian Gonzalez's eighth-inning line drive.

Body catch? The liner clipped Gomez's left ribcage -- and the right-hander trapped the ball to his side by clamping his left arm on it.

X-rays taken immediately after the game were negative, except for some natural tenderness in the spot. Gomez has a couple of down days coming anyway after throwing 39 pitches in three shutout relief innings in his first outing for the Bucs, who had acquired him in the offseason from Cleveland for outfielder Quincy Latimore.

"Everything is fine," Gomez said. "It was all just reaction."

"Our first concern when he came in was, how does he feel? When you get hit like that, a little shock is involved," manager Clint Hurdle said. "It's scary. No leather, hit as hard as it can, and first thing it hits is the rib cage."

Gomez might have taken some ribbing from teammates for his immediate reaction to the drive, which ended the inning. In one motion, he calmly removed the ball from his arm pit, held it up for the plate umpire to see and continued walking toward the Pirates' first-base dugout.

"Like nothing happened," Hurdle said. "Like, 'I do this every day.'"