A Yankee Stadium crowd on the verge of celebrating Bryan Mitchell's escape from a second-inning jam was thrust into an eerie silence Monday night when the rookie took Eduardo Nuñez's line drive off his head and was led from the field, a bloody towel pressed against his face.
It made much of what followed in the Yankees' wild 8-7, 10-inning victory over the Twins an afterthought, but the initial news regarding Mitchell appeared to be positive.
The Yankees (65-52), who increased their AL East lead over the idle Blue Jays to one game, announced that the 24-year-old righthander, who was evaluated and released from New York-Presbyterian Hospital, had suffered a "small nasal fracture.