During Thursday night's 4-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton was hit in the face under his left eye by an 88 mph fastball from Mike Fiers. Stanton sustained multiple facial fractures and dental damage and is expected to miss the rest of the season.
It's a big loss for the Marlins (71-74), whose performance this season has surprised many, and Stanton has been a big part of that. The slugger leads the MLB with 105 RBIs and the National League with 37 home runs this year. He also has the second most walks (94) and the third-best slugging percentage (.555) and on-base plus slugging percentage (.950). There has yet to be more news about Stanton's injury following a CT scan and multiple X-rays.
"[Fiers] gets a lot of [strikeouts] on fastballs up, and the ball just got away from him," Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy said in this ESPN article. "You saw what happened. It was definitely a scary moment. You never wish that on anybody. It's just a freak accident."
Stanton was replaced in the game by Reed Johnson, who stepped to the plate to continue the unfinished at-bat with an 0-2 count. Fiers did the unthinkable and managed to hit Johnson on the hand with his next pitch, which prompted Marlins third baseman Case McGehee to yell at Fiers from the on-deck circle. Both benches and bullpens cleared after that, ultimately resulting in the ejections of McGehee and Marlins manager Mike Redmond.
In the following inning, Marlins reliever Anthony DeSclafani was also ejected for hitting Brewers outfielder Carlos Gomez, which upset Redmond because nobody on Milwaukee was ejected. Despite Fiers' terrifying mistake, it was McGehee who instigated the benches/bullpens clearing, followed by Redmond's maniacal behavior toward the umpires and DeSclafani's obvious intent to hit Gomez.
But there does remain some good news for Miami. Stanton's future with the Marlins has remained in question because of the organization's unwillingness to offer long-term lucrative contracts (likely due to countless such mistakes in the past), but the MVP candidate could remain with Miami for at least another year and possibly beyond.
"The Marlins plan to offer MVP candidate Giancarlo Stanton the most lucrative contract in franchise history," wrote Bob Nightengale of USA Today. "Even if they can't reach an agreement on a long-term contract extension this winter, the Marlins insist they will keep Stanton through at least the 2015 season, vowing to build a championship club around him."
Check out the video of Stanton below provided by Youtube.com:
