A day after being struck in the face with a line drive, leaving a bright red welt on his cheek, Baltimore Orioles manager Craig Albernaz showed up to work on Tuesday.
But he’s working injured.
Albernaz, who returned to the dugout from the scary scene Monday night, revealed that he did not come away from the incident unscathed. Per Albernaz, he has “at least” seven facial fractures and a broken jaw.
But he doesn’t need surgery or his jaw wired shut. And the first-year manager appears ready to move forward with business as usual — outside of a a soft diet.
He also looks remarkably OK for a guy who just had the right side of his face fractured into pieces.
“I feel good actually, I mean, considering everything,” he said at a pregame news conference Tuesday afternoon. “… Ball hit me pretty flush in the cheek. Feel good, luckily no surgery. I think all-in-all, it’s at least seven fractures in my cheek area — orbital. And then a broken jaw.
“But luckily it doesn’t have to be wired, no surgery. I just have to eat baby food for six weeks.”
Craig Albernaz was back at work Tuesday, a day after his jaw was broken and face fractured in seven places due to a line drive. (File photo)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
In case you missed it, here’s the line drive that hit Albernaz on the cheek during Monday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Orioles second baseman Jeremiah Jackson hit a line-drive foul ball in the fifth inning that made a beeline for the dugout.
Albernaz was standing on the top step of the dugout away from the protective netting, and the ball caught him squarely on the cheek at 70.6 mph.
Albernaz immediately left the dugout to receive medical attention.
He said Tuesday that his first thought after being hit was to cover up his face “because if it was really bad, I didn’t want my family to see it on TV.”
He said he then went through and cleared concussion protocol and tried to return to the dugout, but the medical team insisted that he undergo a CT scan.
While he was waiting to have the scan, he FaceTimed his family to let them know that he was OK. And in the sixth inning, he heard commotion from the crowd around a home run — that was hit by Jackson.
Jackson hit a sixth-inning grand slam that cut Baltimore’s then 7-2 deficit to 7-6. The home run ultimately sparked the Orioles to rally for a 9-7 win to move into a first-place tie with the New York Yankees in the AL East at 9-7.
At that point, Albernaz said that he said “f*** this” and went back to the dugout to join the celebration and give Jackson a hug after Jackson had rounded the bases.
Albernaz was then ordered by the medical team to return to the clubhouse for his CT scan. But he ended up with a souvenir from the ordeal.
Jackson autographed his grand-slam ball and gave it Albernaz, along with an inscribed apology for hitting him him in the face with his line drive: “Sorry homie.”
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