SAN DIEGO -- It’s been a trying season for Jake Cronenworth. To say the least.
First, Cronenworth struggled at the plate in April. Then he took a fastball to the chin -- literally. He unknowingly played through concussion symptoms for a short while after that, and his numbers got even worse. Then, Cronenworth spent two months on the injured list while he recovered from those symptoms.
But Tuesday night? This felt like a bit too much -- like the baseball gods were toying with Cronenworth. (And all before the end of the first inning, too!)
An hour or two before first pitch of the Padres’ 4-1 victory over the Diamondbacks, Cronenworth was practicing picks at first base. One of those balls hit the lip of the grass and ricocheted, hitting Cronenworth square in the nose.
After being evaluated by the training staff, Cronenworth would remain in the starting lineup. He sustained a bloody nose, but nothing further. He then proceeded to commit a costly first-inning error that led to the Diamondbacks’ only run.
And then, as fate would have it, Cronenworth came to the plate with two on and two outs in the bottom of the inning.
Guess what happened next?
“Smacked in the face, error in the first inning,” Cronenworth said. “And then a homer. Just the cherry on top.”
Indeed, D-backs right-hander Zac Gallen threw a 1-2 fastball that caught way too much plate. Cronenworth turned on it and launched it down the right-field line, keeping it just fair inside the pole.
“Funny how this game works sometimes,” Cronenworth said.
That home run gave the Padres a 4-1 lead in the top of the first inning. The rest of the night was uneventful. Surely, Cronenworth didn’t mind. (Although he did make an impressive play at first base on a strange hop off the bag.)
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, going 4-for-31 after he was hit by that pitch.
Since his return, Cronenworth has looked a whole lot more like his old self. He’s hitting .310 with a pair of homers, including Tuesday’s first-inning blast. But it hasn’t been entirely smooth. His error at Dodger Stadium on Friday night set up Teoscar Hernández’s go-ahead grand slam.
Then, on Tuesday: another baseball to the face and another error.
“It’s been probably the toughest year of my career,” Cronenworth said. “Especially, today didn’t help. It was nice to hit that home run.”
Before he did, Cronenworth wasn’t sure he was going to be able to play. His concussion symptoms were serious, and the Padres were rightly going to be very cautious with a ball hitting Cronenworth in the nose.
“Everything that’s happened the last three months, and for that to happen the first week after I come back is obviously not ideal,” Cronenworth said.
But he passed all tests and felt OK hitting in the batting cage just before the game. Then, he went out and proved it in the first inning.
“What a day,” Cronenworth would later say. “What a [freaking] day.”