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
Everyone held their breath at Rogers Centre on Saturday afternoon.
During the fifth inning of the Blue Jays’ 6-1 win over the Angels, Los Angeles outfielder Taylor Ward took a pitch from Alek Manoah that clipped his helmet and hit the left side of his face.
The 92-mph sinker came up and in, with no time for Ward to move out of the way.
Ward went down to the ground and the Angels’ training staff went over to immediately help him, holding a towel over his face for about five minutes.
As a hushed silence remained over the crowd, players — Shohei Ohtani, Vladimir Guerrero and Manoah among them — looked on in disbelief.
After he was attended to by home plate, he was carted off the field down the left-field line.
“Our thoughts right now are with him,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said, while not giving a clear update on the status of the injury, according to The Athletic.
“I’m definitely going to pray for him and his family,” Manoah added, per the outlet. “That’s the last thing you want to do, no matter the situation, no matter the team, no matter anything. [I] feel really bad about it.
“Definitely will be looking to see how he’s doing and hopefully he’s back on the field pretty quickly.”
Andrew Velazquez entered the game for Ward while lefty Genesis Cabrera came in for Alek Manoah.
Ward’s hitting .253 with 14 homers and a .756 OPS this season.