In the second inning against the Milwaukee Brewers last night, Pittburgh Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon took a 105 MPH (per Statcast) line drive to the back of his head and somehow managed to stay in the game. It was a 2-1 pitch to Hernan Perez and Perez smoked it right back up the middle. Taillon tried to duck and shield himself from it, but the ball was moving too fast for him to completely dodge it, so it struck him in the back of his head and bounced all the way into the outfield.Taillon went down immediately, obviously, but he never lost consciousness and said that he responded appropriately to all of the questions from the medical staff. He wanted to get up right away, but they kept him down for a few minutes as they checked him out. Manager Clint Hurdle said he deferred to the trainers in deciding whether to leave Taillon in or not—presumably they cleared him of any concussion issues—but didn't elaborate further."To be honest, I was waiting for it to hurt when I was down," Taillon said of the second-inning scare. "I really felt good the whole way through. … Coming off the DL the past couple years [with Tommy John and hernia surgeries], I wasn't going to let something like that keep me down."Taillon was making his first start since being placed on the disabled list with shoulder fatigue earlier in the month and went on to pitch six innings. He didn't factor into the decision, however, because with the score tied at 2-2 in the ninth inning, Josh Harrison hit a little league walk-off home run when the Brewers turned a triple into the winning run with a throwing error.
[MLB]
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