Happ makes a speedy return

He’s glad to be back from ‘scary moment’ with eye injury

Ian Happ got a close-up look at his injury Thursday that scared Cubs fans.

“You’ve been through moments like that before where you’ve taken one off the cheek or the eye or something,” Happ said Saturday before returning to the leadoff spot for the first game of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field.

He hit a home run in hit first at-bat, a 401-foot blast off the video board in right field off Adam Wainwright on the second pitch in the bottom of the first. He added a second solo shot off Wainwright in the fifth in a 4-2 Cubs loss.

“But that was one where I definitely felt the lace (of the baseball) actually touch the eyeball, so it was a little bit of a scary moment.”

Losing Happ — who after Game 1 on Saturday was hitting .317 with 12 home runs and 24 RBIs and entered the day ranked third in the majors with a 1.068 OPS — for an extended period would have been a serious blow to the Cubs. And there were plenty of uncertain moments until Happ was treated by the Cubs’ medical staff and doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Happ fouled a pitch from Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander J.T. Brubaker in the fourth inning that bounced off the plate and struck him. Happ left the game, then sat out Friday in the first of a five-game series against the Cardinals.

Happ didn’t think he broke any bones around the right eye, which he said is stronger than his left eye. But he couldn’t regain his normal vision to finish the at-bat. Blinking was offset by the slightest breeze that would cause the eye to water.

“And just trying to watch the game that night, keep ice on it, on the plane ride back there was sometimes where it just felt like something was in your eye all night,” Happ said.

Any worries, however, were alleviated when Happ had his eye dilated and went through a series of tests that he performs at least twice a year.

“Vision is so important for us as hitters, especially for the way that I think about my game,” Happ said. “So anything that affects that is definitely scary and nerve-wracking.”

Happ didn’t believe he suffered a concussion, although he did go through a series of protocols that ruled it out.

“Pretty early on we knew that it was just about getting the eyeball to heal up,” Happ said.