Dodgers: Austin Barnes Exits Game With Apparent Hand Injury
The Dodgers are having a really bad first game of the season in Colorado. Clayton Kershaw got knocked around, Jimmy Nelson got hit hard, and now they have to worry about an injury.
Austin Barnes had to leave the game in the 7th inning after a play at the plate. With Nelson on the mound, a ball got away from him and the runner tried to score. The Dodgers catcher got it and dove back into home plate attempting to tag him out.
The runner was safe and Barnes appeared to be injured on the play. He came up holding his right hand and the Dodger training staff immediately pulled him off of the field. Will Smith came in to catch the remainder of the game for Los Angeles.
Dodgers Related: Vin Scully’s Opening Day Message to Fans
The Dodgers broadcast crew pointed out that Barnes‘ hand appeared to be cut up on the play. We will update you with more information from the team after today’s game.
Dodgers: MLB Insider Says This is Corey Seager’s Last Opening Day in LA
Jimmy Nelson’s second wild pitch. Ugh. He may need a few weeks more in the minors
good a little adversity early in the season will get the team grounded. Get em tomorrow Dodgers! Hope Austin is ok.
Hitting into 3 double plays didn’t help . CK perhaps should have been pulled after 5 innings but Dodgers had a golden opportunity in the 9th but 2 K’s put any fire going out.
A game of inches but the called strike on Rios was pretty bad. He hasn’t had much luck this year.
Granted Cory Seager is an outstanding hitter, he hits to all fields, hits with power and exhibits outstanding plate discipline but, he is without a doubt one of the worst fielding short stops in the big leagues. He has limited range due to his lack of quick feet and his fielding approach is awful, he fields one handed 90% of the time, and even back handed when balls are hit right at him. Time and time again he short hops his throws to first due to not squaring up this throws. I was an infield instructor in the minor leagues and once had a short stop from the Dominican that we picked up after he was released by the Oakland organization. His approach was very much like Cory’s except that he had very quick feet and had outstanding range to both sides. However, like Cory he fielded every routine ground balls one handed and kicked many of them as a result. I had enough and had him out to do “early work” every day to try and break him from that habit. Finally, totally frustrated with him, I cut a glove size disk from ¼” plywood and attached Velcro tape to the back and gave it to him when he showed up for early work and told him to put it on his left hand and field some ground balls. He said that no way could he do that and I responded yes you can if you use both hands. Of course, I didn’t use a fungo, I just rolled him ground balls. He found after about forty five minutes that with his soft hands and using both of them, getting it front and centering up, he could field even using that disk. He rarely fielded one handed after that and when he did, he heard from me.
I believe Dino Ebel is the Dodgers infield instructor now and frankly if so, he should stick to coaching third base specifically (which is exceptional) because if Cory’s fielding approach is a reflection of Dinos’ fielding instructions then he is doing an unacceptable job.