Tigers' JaCoby Jones placed on disabled list after taking pitch to face
Jones was hit in the face by an 89-m.p.h. fastball; Jim Adduci called up to fill in for Jones
MINNEAPOLIS – JaCoby Jones was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a left lip laceration after being hit by a pitch in the third inning of Saturday’s 5-4 win over the Twins.
Jones was hit by an 89-m.p.h. fastball from right-hander Justin Haley and immediately ran down the third-base line in pain before he was met by Tigers head athletic trainer Kevin Rand.
Jones received nine stitches but avoided serious oral injury.
“He’s at the hospital right now getting a CT scan,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said of Jones when he met with reporters for his postgame media session at Target Field. “We don’t have the results.
“I can tell you it was a nasty split lip. They think his teeth were all intact, but they’re doing a CT scan just to make sure there’s no other structural damage underneath.”
Andrew Romine entered as a pinch-runner and finished the game in centerfield.
The Tigers called up outfielder Jim Adduci from Triple-A Toledo to replace Jones on the 25-man roster. Adduci, 31, is a left-handed hitter who has not played in majors since 2014 with the Rangers. He entered Saturday hitting .341 in 11 games with the Mud Hens this season.
Adduci has played 28 major-league games in leftfield and eight in rightfield.
Ausmus said Jones’ lip was a nasty sight.
“I don’t get squeamish very much ... that made me a little squeamish,” Ausmus said. “It wasn’t even a lot of blood. It was probably a half-inch long cut … and you could see the meat inside.
“It might have been split all the way through. That’s how deep it was. I couldn’t tell if it was split all the way through. I came in and checked on him before he went to the hospital and looked at it, and it was nasty.”
Matt Boyd was later ejected for throwing behind Miguel Sano in what the umpires thought was an intentional pitch. Boyd denied there was any intent to throw at Sano and was surprised he got ejected.
“That’s horrifying,” Boyd said of seeing Jones get hit. “Right when you see him get hit and see red on his face, you start praying right away.”
Jones is batting .150 with a double, triple and home run in 16 games. He has four RBIs and has scored four runs.
Contact George Sipple: gsipple@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgesipple. Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!
