Seattle Mariners second baseman Dee Gordon is in the midst of a bounceback season following a disappointing first year in the pacific northwest. He entered Thursday's game against the New York Yankees hitting .304/.327/.406 (103 OPS+) with 10 stolen bases on 11 tries. Unfortunately, Gordon might have to put his rebound season on pause due to injury.
That's because Gordon exited Thursday's game after being struck in the wrist by an errant J.A. Happ pitch. Afterward Gordon, who will undergo more tests on Friday to determine if he suffered a fracture, voiced his displeasure with Happ:
Dee Gordon says wrist very sore and he'll have CT-scan tomorrow in Boston to see if anything broken after x-ray inconclusive. But says his reaction after getting hit was more anger than pain as upset that Happ came up and in twice on him.
— Greg Johns (@GregJohnsMLB) May 10, 2019
Gordon: "I was pissed off. 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 f&^% down. That's twice. If you can't throw that pitch, don't throw it."
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) May 10, 2019
Gordon's frustration is understandable. Not only is he having a better season than last year, but he's potentially missing action at a time when the Mariners need all the help they can get. That stinks -- doubly so because Gordon seems like a wonderful human being on top of being an entertaining player to watch.
Still, let's be clear: Happ wasn't intentionally throwing at Gordon. And while Gordon's point about pitchers attempting only the pitches they can execute is fair -- Bill James once proposed that excessively wild pitchers be ejected by umpires for safety purposes -- but Happ wouldn't seem to fit the description.
Happ does indeed pitch up a lot -- he has one of the highest average fastball locations among starters -- yet he came into Thursday's appearance with just 33 hit batters in nearly 300 big-league appearances. Gordon was only Happ's second hit batter of the season.
Again, Gordon being ticked off is a reasonable reaction. But let's not label or confuse Happ as a headhunter; he's a pitcher who had one get away from him. It's too bad that the pitch struck and potentially hurt Gordon; these kinds of things happen, however, and are an accepted (if undesirable) risk of the game.
