Alex Bregman Fielded A Grounder With His Face

Baseball’s back! One game, anyway. Lance Lynn, having the best season of his career at age 32, struck out 11 and became MLB’s first pitcher to 12 wins as the Rangers beat the Astros 5-0 Thursday night. And Alex Bregman put the lie to that old John McGraw quote.

Bregman, fresh off his all-star start, is only playing shortstop because Carlos Correa is on the IL. The Astros hope Bregman doesn’t have to join him, after leaving the game in the third inning after taking a Shin-Soo Choo ground ball to the chin.

“He was bleeding when I got out there,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said, and Bregman needed four stitches to close the wound. More concerning was that Bregman appeared disoriented, touching the area around his left ear. Hopefully it’s just that his jaw was jarred by the blow, but the Astros will check him out thoroughly.

“He’ll get checked out for everything nowadays,” Hinch said. “Anything that happens like that you’re going to run through the process, the protocol. He’s going to see every specialist he needs to to make sure he’s OK.”

Bregman wasn’t available to answer questions after the game. Even after the loss, the Astros have a seven-game lead in the division. If Bregman needs some time off, he’ll have it.