DENVER -- William Myers, already in the midst of an injury-plagued 2018 campaign, was handed another bad break on Wednesday -- or, more accurately, a bad hop.
During batting practice, Myers was hit in the face by a ground ball at third base. He was a late scratch from the starting lineup with a lacerated nose for the Padres' 6-2 loss to the Rockies. He will likely be out for Thursday's game, as well, but he's expected to return to the field this weekend in Los Angeles.
Myers was struck squarely on the nose while taking routine pregame fungos, and he remained on the ground for several moments, before walking off the field, bloodied and holding a towel over his face. Afterward, he received stitches and CT scan, which came back negative -- as did concussion tests.
"It was one of those right on the edge of that lip where the grass meets the dirt," said Padres manager Andy Green. "It hit, and it spiked up and popped up and hit him. It got him in a bad spot."
In 51 games this season, Myers is hitting .268/.322/.480 with nine homers. He leads the team in OPS and ranks second in batting average.
Myers has spent three stints on the disabled list this season -- with nerve irritation in his right arm, a strained left oblique and a bone bruise in his left foot. Myers sustained the bone bruise on a foul ball earlier this month, and he'd only returned from the disabled list last week.
When he returned, he did so as a third baseman for the first time in his career. The Padres have started him there regularly in their quest for more positional versatility. He's looked relatively sharp at the hot corner, but committed his first error there Tuesday night.
This time, the injury probably won't require a stint on the DL for Myers. But it's going to leave a mark.
"I don't know that he was ever pretty," Green quipped. "But he's definitely not pretty right now."