Carlos Carrasco hit by comebacker; X-rays come back negative on serious injury

Carlos Carrasco was struck in the face by a line drive off the bat of Chicago's Melky Cabrera in the 1st inning of Tuesday night's game. He spent a few minutes off the ground and was clearly in a great deal of pain, but initial tests show no sign of serious injury, as X-rays turned up no broken bones, and concussion tests did not detect any symtoms.

The ball appeared to glance off Carrasco glove and/or wrist before hitting his face, which would have slowed it down at least a bit, and may have prevented the damage from being far worse.

At this time it is too early to know if Carrasco will miss any starts. My guess is he's going to have a serious bruise and some swelling, so it wouldn't be a surprised if he's held out for a week or so, but it doesn't seem likely that he'd miss extended time, which is of course very good news.

There's also the possibility that something like this will make him uncomfortable on the mound, but many other pitchers who've suffered a comebacker have been able to get back to pitching without any visible signs of nervousness about being on the mound.

In any event, it's wonderful to know that Carlos was not as badly injured as initially feared. Given the way the last five days have gone, the Indians can use whatever good news they can get.