When Oklahoma City DH Chris Davis cracked a ball to left-center field in the first inning of Omaha’s 2nd game Sunday afternoon, Kila Ka’aihue immediately said, “Whoa, that ball is gone.”
He was wrong, but it still looked like a gapper for sure. Instead, Tim Raines, Jr. sprinted to the ball and brought it down for the third out of the inning.
And then he crashed headfirst into the wall.
And then he crumpled to the ground.
Besides trainer Drew Van Dam bolting on to the field, nobody in the dugout or stands could move, except maybe to lift their hands to their mouths in horror. Remember the time Rick Ankiel ran neck-first into an outfield wall? From where I sat, this looked a little like that.
When Raines rolled over and began to stand up, everyone exhaled, and Ka’aihue noted that he was surprised the wall was still standing. And then, echoing from somewhere behind me in the stands, a young boy bellowed out, “Hey! Nice catch!”
Later, in the dugout, Raines told his teammates his head and neck felt fine, but he appeared to be nursing his shoulder. Unfortunately, his heroic catch went for naught as the ORoyals dropped that game, 4-2. The loss, according to Mark Nassar, guaranteed a losing season for Omaha.
The ORoyals have a TON of new faces over the last couple weeks, and I’ll run those all down in a later post. I also have a cute story from the dugout and a small measure of revenge to carry out. One of the newcomers, Michael O’Connor, is pitching right now. Here is the link for the GameDay if you’d like to keep track online while you watch Gil Meche and the KC team.
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