VIDEO: Valverde claims NL saves lead even after liner off face
May 24, 2008 by Tony Baldwin
Filed under Baseball
It’s been a crazy week of plays that have injured players with line drives to the head and others running into the wall. Houston Astros’ closer Jose Valverde took over the National League saves lead after finishing the game against the Philadelphia Phillies Friday night at Minute Maid Park. However, earlier in the inning, Valverde was hit with a line drive off the bat of Pedro Feliz that first hit the tip of his glove before making contact with his face.
Valverde hit the ground immediately and after being attended to by members of the Astros athletic training and coaching staff, he returned to his feet. Amazingly enough, Valverde stayed in the game, and closed out the ninth inning, giving him an NL leading 15th save of the season. The video is below.
Glad to see Valverde and Young were not seriously injured.
That’s one tough son of a gun. The announcer makes a valid point in saying it’s better to try and finish it out than not to and let that be the last memory of his night.
Definitely a scary moment. I’m glad no one was seriously injured in either the Valverde or Young case. Y’all have to check out the Chico State kid also. This kid on a DII team runs into the wall, face first, makes the catch. Later in the game, he hits his first career home run.
VIDEO below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltrGuRZY4Jk
Go Astros! The Astros are sooooooo awesome.