Marlins Reliever Dan Jennings Takes Scary Line Drive to Head

Baseball is a contact sport.

Fans in Pittsburgh were reminded of this Thursday night when Jordy Mercer’s bat made contact with the ball, which quickly made contact with the left side of pitcher Dan Jennings’s head. The ball sprung off Mercer’s bat at 101 miles per hour, with the pitcher’s head transforming a line drive into a pop fly.

The Marlins reliever endured a concussion on the play, showing signs of dizziness but never losing consciousness. Carted off the field, Jennings spent the night in a hospital in Pittsburgh, which boasts the nation’s leading center specializing in sports concussions. 

The scans were negative-it seems I’m going to be ok. The support shown tonight has been unbelievable, speechless. God is amazing

— Dan Jennings (@LtDanJennings) August 8, 2014

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moo… http://t.co/v4TVLnx02q

— Dan Jennings (@LtDanJennings) August 8, 2014

The ball ricocheted off Jennings’s head and into shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria’s glove for the out. The Pirates won the game 7-2.

“It’s definitely scary,” Marlins catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia told reporters. “I’ve never been on the field when something like that’s happened. I saw Cobb go through it with the Rays. It’s scary. It goes past baseball. You start to worry about life. He’s got a wife and kid. Any time you get hit in the head, it’s scary.”