Season over for D-Backs’ Walker
Slugger sidelined with fracture in upper jaw
Even if the outcome could have been worse, that doesn’t mean the news was good for Diamondbacks slugger Christian Walker. After being hit in the face by a pitch on Monday night, Walker was diagnosed with a fracture in his upper jaw. His season is over and he will undergo surgery on Wednesday morning.
“Extremely disappointing,” Walker said. “It’s been a long year, it’s been a great year, but I wanted to finish it out with my teammates on the field.”
With the count 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Walker was struck with a 94 mph fastball from Dodgers right-hander Kenta Maeda. It appeared the pitch might have grazed the flap attached to Walker’s batting helmet before striking him in the face. Walker never lost consciousness and said he didn’t exhibit concussion symptoms.
“Could have been way worse,” Walker said. “My brain is good. My teeth are good. My eyes are good. Seems like just the jaw right now.”
Manager Torey Lovullo called the
news disappointing, adding that he had hoped to get Walker into the lineup again in the season’s final week, including a possible start in left field. Walker, a first baseman by trade, has spent time in the outfield during his career, and both he and Lovullo view it as a possible route into the lineup on a team that has first base pretty well covered.
“As long as Paul Goldschmidt is here it’s tough to play first base,” Walker said. “That’s just the way it is. So any way I can keep myself in the lineup, whether it’s outfield or any position, to be honest, I’m into. I’m familiar with outfield at the moment. That’s pretty comfortable for me.”
Walker, 27, put together another impressive season in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He hit .299/.354/ .568 with 47 extra-base hits in 324 atbats. In five stints in the majors, he compiled only 49 at-bats and did not produce good results, going just 8 for 49 (.163) with three homers, two of which came off Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw.
A year ago, Walker’s bat earned him a spot on the Diamondbacks’ playoff roster, and it was a scary moment during the National League Division Series that convinced him to start wearing the protective face guard that might have prevented further damage on Monday night. In the sixth inning of Game 3, Walker was hit by a pitch from thenDodgers right-hander Yu Darvish.
“He ran that sinker up and in and it ended up hitting the bill of my helmet and then cracked the bill of the helmet,” Walker said. “So it was an extremely close call, but I felt like it was a sign. I was like, ‘Hey, I need to wear this.’ Who knows. It seems like it helped. I thought I heard it hit the mask before it hit me. … I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t have the mask on, so it’s a good thing I was wearing it.”
Walker isn’t looking forward to the recovery process following surgery, which he said will repair a Le Fort fracture at the bottom part of his upper jaw.
“They’re going to go in and put some plates in there and repair the fractures,” he said. “My jaw will be wired shut for a week. Liquid diet for a month. That will probably be the worst part of it.”
Walker said Maeda had reached out to the Diamondbacks to offer his apologies. Walker didn’t seem to have any hard feelings.
“I understand,” he said. “It’s a crappy situation on both ends – his end, my end. It’s an ugly part of the game.”