Chris Iannetta Hit in Face with 93mph Fastball

Chris Iannetta the Arizona Diamondback catcher was hit by a pitch in the mouth during his seventh inning at bat on Friday night. The Diamondbacks won the game 11-4. Iannetta left the game after being hit with the pitch.

Iannetta’s manager Torey Lovullo said that the catcher’s top lip had been split open by the impact of the ball and the player had been taken from the park to the hospital for further examination. On Saturday, the team will have more of an update on the status of Iannetta.

Lovullo told the media following the game that Iannetta had been up and walking and everything was fine with him. However, anytime a head trauma is involved, with batter is hit in that area, no one is comfortable until a full diagnosis has been made, so the team is using all precautions possible to make sure Iannetta is fine.

Iannetta was the leadoff batter in the seventh and it appeared as if he turned into the 93 mph fastball from Johnny Barbato a reliever for the Pirates.

The Diamondbacks catcher fell to the ground after impact and remained face down in the batter’s box for a number of minutes. When trainers reached him and were able to attend to Iannetta, blood could be seen dripping from his face.

Iannetta walked of the field under his own power with trainers on either side of him, and one holding a towel up to his face to catch the dripping blood.

Before he was hit by a pitch, Iannetta had 1 hit in 3 previous at bats including a third inning solo home run that was part of Arizona’s seven run outburst in the inning.

During the ninth inning, Arizona pitcher Tom Wilhelmsen hit Chris Stewart from the Pirates in the leg. However, Steward quickly ran to first without any incident.

Lovullo when asked following the game if the pitch that had hit Iannetta was intentional said that he stands by his thought that the pitch just got away from the Pittsburgh pitcher and was not intentional.

Arizona raced out to the lead in the National League West at the start of the season, but has dropped to third place 2 games behind the first place Colorado Rockies and a half game behind the second place Los Angeles Dodgers.

Iannetta is currently batting just .220 with 3 home runs and 6 RBIs on the season.