Dee Gordon Was Pissed Off After Getting Hit By J.A. Happ

Yeah, Mariners second baseman Dee Gordon was hurting after being hit on the wrist in the third inning of Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the Yankees, and yeah, he might have to miss some time. (A CT scan is scheduled for today.) But more than anything else, he was angry.

Gordon saw two fastballs up and in in the at-bat, and the second caught him in a painful place:

After the game, Gordon was also a second kind of sore. He didn’t think the plunking was intentional; just the opposite. He was mad that Happ (Gordon believes) doesn’t have the control to be throwing high and hard like that.

“I was pissed off,” Gordon said. “It was the second time he threw up by my head. You’ve got to get the ball down. You can’t throw that pitch. I got a family. You need to get the ball, you need to get the ball the fuck down. That’s twice. If you can’t throw that pitch, don’t throw it.”

One consideration here is that Happ’s control was pretty good on the night. He allowed one hit, striking out seven and walking three, in five innings of work. He attacked lefties from all angles, though he only came up and in on one other pitch.

Gordon was the second batter Happ has hit this year in 43 and a third innings pitched.

The Mariners hope Gordon doesn’t need to be out for a long time, because he’s had a good start to his season, hitting .304 with 19 RBI in 38 games. But also because the Seattle infield is very rapidly becoming a mash unit. When Gordon left the game he was replaced at second by utility infielder Dylan Moore. But Moore was pinch-hit for because he had been plunked on the wrist in Wednesday’s game, and wasn’t supposed to play at all. So he was replaced at second by Edwin Encarnacion.

Encarnacion is exclusively a first baseman now, though he played third in earlier in his career, but this was his very first MLB appearance at second base. So, naturally, on the very first batter he was out there for, he got hurt:

Encarnacion rolled his wrist trying to make a diving stop, and stayed down for a long while. He was attended to by trainers, but he stayed in the game—as much because of a lack of other options as anything else.

“We needed to go to some guys to get through the game, and we ended up with Edwin playing second base,” manager Scott Servais said. “Not ideal, but we’ll look at the roster quick tonight and see what we’ve got heading to Boston. We’re going to need to get some extra help and see what we do when we get over there.”

The M’s pulled shortstop J.P. Crawford out of his game at Triple-A Tacoma, so he’s probably on his way up. Gordon is trying to stay positive, though. “I broke a foot last year and still played, so we’ll see,” he said.