Washington Nationals Austin Voth sustained a broken nose when he was hit in the face by a fastball Sunday. Philadelphia Phillies starter Vince Veslasquez lost control of a 90 mph fastball as Voth squared for a sacrifice bunt to move Victor Robles from first to second.
The ball appeared to hit the bill of Voth’s helmet before striking him on the nose. Immediately, his nose began bleeding as trainers scampered to put a towel to his face.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez called the scene “really scary” adding he nearly fell over on the bench watching Voth get hit.
Voth will remain in Philadelphia to have his nose reset. Meanwhile, Voth was the second straight batter hit by Veslasquez. The Phillies’ pitcher hit Robles on his arm in the previous plate appearance.
No Velasquez didn’t throw at either intentionally. The right-handed hurler just struggled with his command early on in the game. As a result he beaned two batters and nearly hit a third as the game went on.
Martinez had a theory to Velasquez’s struggles and warned it may be a sign of things to come for other pitchers around the league.
“I hate to bring it up, but you’ll see more of that if we keep messing around with the stuff about the balls,” Martinez said, per Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports. “I understand them trying to clean some stuff up. But it’s hot, it’s slippery, it’s sweaty. I know Velasquez didn’t throw in there intentionally, but I’m afraid that if we don’t come up with something unified for everybody, you’ll see a lot more of that. And that’s a scary feeling.”
Martinez’s comments come in response to Major League Baseball cracking down on pitchers using foreign substances. The league is implementing 8-to-10 checks per game of the pitchers.
The spin rate of hurlers have been insane this season. Some credit that to why there were six no-hitters through May 20. But since the start of the crackdown, spin rates of have dropped. As evident with two of the best pitchers in the game Trevor Bauer and Gerrit Cole have dropped.
With the heat and humidity of the summer, could the lack of substance contribute to more pitches getting away from hurlers as Martinez suggested? That remains to be seen. But, it’s another aspect to monitor moving forward with MLB scaling back the use of foreign substance.
