The first pitch of Sunday afternoon’s game between the San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds departed the left hand of starting pitcher Kyle Harrison and arrived on the left hand of leadoff man TJ Friedl.
Friedl remained in the game to run the bases after writhing in pain, but exited quickly after the inning was over. The fear, post-replay, was that the pitch that smashed into his left thumb had broken it, an endgame that would be completely brutal given that Friedl had only returned a week earlier from a right wrist fracture that sidelined him for some 30 games.