Washington Nationals star pitcher Max Scherzer suffered a broken nose on Tuesday in an absolutely bizarre batting practice accident.
Scherzer was participating in a practice drill in which pitchers stand in the batter’s box to practice bunting the ball. The flame-throwing righty, who was standing in the box with a seemingly lackadaisical attitude, squared up to bunt a pitch thrown by a Nats coach.
Unbelievably, the ball ricocheted off of Scherzer’s bat and directly towards his face. The ball struck the 34-year-old pitcher square in the nose, and he was immediately forced to leave the field.
Later on Tuesday night, Washington officials announced that Scherzer, who leads Nationals starters with a 2.81 ERA and 136 strikeouts on the season, had suffered a broken nose in the accident.
The Nationals have not yet made any type of move to place Scherzer on the injured list after the fracture. Signs point to the fact that he will miss any possible time on the shelf and that he will make his next start this week.
This would be the best possible outcome for both Scherzer and the Nationals, who were caught off guard by this bizarre happenstance on an otherwise normal Tuesday.
