San Diego Padres outfielder Ha-Sung Kim recalled the dizzying moment he was forced to leave the game after being hit in the knee by a foul ball while batting.
“It’s much better,” Kim told MK Sports before the Padres’ away game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, N.Y., on July 27 (KST). The pain is less and the movement is better,” he said.
The day before, Kim went down after being hit on the inside of his left knee by a foul ball he hit during an away game against the Washington Nationals.
Describing the pain he felt as the worst he’d ever felt in baseball, he said, “Normally, the pain goes away after a while, but yesterday it kept hurting. It was really bad. I couldn’t put any pressure on my leg, so I thought, ‘Something’s wrong,'” he says. 메이저사이트
Eventually, he was unable to walk on his own and had to be helped off the field by a trainer. Fortunately, the uneasy feeling was short-lived. An X-ray revealed nothing wrong.
Luck was on his side. “If it had hit the upper cap (kneecap) just a little bit further, it would have broken,” he said, adding that he escaped serious injury by a hair’s breadth.
It’s not uncommon for a foul ball to hit him in the shin or foot, but rarely in the knee. “I hit a ball on a course I shouldn’t have hit,” he explained.
“I hit a ball on a course I wasn’t supposed to hit,” he said, adding that he’s been inundated with calls from friends since the injury. Luckily, my bones don’t break easily. I don’t get hurt very often,” he said with a laugh before heading out to the field to train.
He took to the field separately before team practice, sprinting and side-stepping under the watchful eye of a trainer to check his condition, and then went through normal drills during team batting practice.
For now, he’s out of the starting lineup. “We’ll probably rest him today, but he could come off the bench,” manager Bob Melvin said of his status.