St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Michael Wacha looks at his arm in the dugout with pitching coach Derek Lilliquest after being drilled by a foul ball off the bat of teammate Matt Adams in the sixth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on May 21, 2014. Wacha left the game. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
The baseball had a knack for finding Michael Wacha during Wednesday night’s start against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Wacha snared a line drive at his face in the fifth inning, but in the sixth he wasn’t as lucky.
Matt Adams ripped a foul ball that came flying through the Cardinals’ dugout and hit Wacha about his right elbow. His hand instantly went numb and manager Mike Matheny called it a night after 88 pitches and six shutout innings.
The Cardinals call the injury a contusion and Wacha had his arm wrapped in ice after the game. Whether or not his next start is in jeopardy is up in the air. Wacha will play catch on Thursday and have a better idea of how his arm is feeling.
Wacha described what happened.
“Just sitting in there and then all of a sudden I hear, ‘Heads up,’ and at the last second, I see a ball flying into our dugout,” said Wacha. “I kind of jumped out of the way because it looked like it was going to square me up in my chest. As I was getting up, it ricocheted off the wall and hit me in my back elbow. The hand just goes numb, and I didn’t really know what was going on.”