ATLANTA — A quiet and sickening atmosphere was cast over the Mets’ 3-1 win over the Braves on Monday night after Kevin Pillar was hit in the face by a pitch.
Braves right-hander Jacob Webb drilled Pillar near his eye and nose with a 94.5 mph fastball in the top of the seventh inning. Pillar immediately fell to the ground and the blood never stopped gushing from his nose, even as he walked off the field under his own power.
Pillar tweeted he was OK about two and a half hours after he walked off the field: “Thanks to everyone that has reached out! Scary moment but I’m doing fine!”
He went to a local hospital accompanied by Mets head trainer Brian Chicklo, manager Luis Rojas relayed after the game. Pillar underwent a CT scan and various tests to determine the severity of the blow to his head.
“This guy’s a warrior,” Rojas said. “He shows up every day to play hard. He got up on his feet and left. There was no chance I thought he was going to be able to do that after he got hit in the face. But he got up and he left, and that’s at least one positive to see in the scary moment.”
After a somber few moments, Webb was taken out of the game. He sat on the Braves bench with his head in between his legs, completely shaken up. Outfielder Khalil Lee made his major-league debut and replaced Pillar at first base. The game was paused as Atlanta’s grounds crew cleaned up the blood at home plate.
“That’s about as sickening a thing as you can see on a baseball field when a kid gets hurt like that,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker. “I’ll keep that kid in my prayers and hopefully everything works out OK. This guy’s nothing but a pro … He’s a gamer.”
The Mets had the bases loaded against Webb and scored their second run of the game on Pillar’s disturbing hit by pitch. James McCann, who was on third base, said touching home plate was the last thing on his mind. He walked toward the mound to talk to Braves catcher Jeff Mathis and didn’t touch the plate until Pillar walked off the field.
“That’s real scary. Everything kind of stops for a second,” McCann said. “Standing in the box, a normal person doesn’t realize how fast that ball is coming in there and how quick you have to react. That ball looked like it was chasing him.”
And that wasn’t the first blow this injury-laden team suffered Monday night. Yet, despite the constant punches the Mets have taken, they stole a win from the Braves with an alternate lineup made up of replacements and two players who made their big-league debuts.
Taijuan Walker was the latest Mets player to sustain an injury on an ever-growing list. He left Monday night’s game after three scoreless innings with left side tightness, the Mets announced. The right-hander appeared to be in significant discomfort through his 33 pitches in the series opener and, after the game, Walker revealed he’s been dealing with the tightness for the past couple of weeks, including in his May 12 start against the Orioles.
Walker said he will undergo an MRI on Tuesday on his left side. The Mets were aware of his previous tightness, but Rojas said they “probably caught it in time” by taking Walker out after three innings.
“I think it could be managed,” Walker said. “I’m not concerned with it. Just one of those nagging injuries that hasn’t gone away yet.”
Right-handed reliever Sean Reid-Foley entered the game in the fourth inning and pitched three gargantuan perfect innings from the Mets bullpen. He struck out five Braves batters and hurled more pitches (43) than Walker in the shutout effort that kept the Mets offense in the game.
The Mets’ backup lineup got Braves left-hander Max Fried out of the game in the seventh after he surrendered back-to-back hits to catchers Tomas Nido and McCann, the latter a pinch-hit RBI double. Nido and McCann did not have doubles this season before their clutch extra-base hits in the seventh inning Monday.
“Baseball is a funny game,” McCann said. “It’ll break you, it’ll humble you pretty much any chance that there is. And when it’s on a team-level like that, you just gotta lean on each other and focus on the positives.”
Outfielder Johneshwy Fargas, making his major-league debut, piled on in the eighth with an RBI double for his first-career hit. The ball traveled back to a deeply shaken up Mets dugout for safekeeping. Trevor May gave up his first home run as a Met on a solo shot to Austin Riley in the eighth. Edwin Diaz collected his sixth save of the season in the ninth, shutting the door on the Braves with a two-run lead.
Walker exited his abbreviated start hours after Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil were placed on the injured list with respective hamstring strains. The Mets entered Monday night’s series opener in Atlanta with 12 players on the IL with just over 20% of the 2021 season behind them. Jacob deGrom, J.D. Davis, and Brandon Nimmo are other Mets among the many wounded.
Add Pillar and Walker to the overflowing injured group and the count is up to 14 players.
“Pillar’s a tough guy,” Walker said. “It’s just one of those things where you shake your head and you’re sick to your stomach. We’re definitely praying for him and hopefully everything checks out good.”
