(AP) — Detroit pitcher Matt Manning's right foot was broken Wednesday night when he was hit by a 119.5 mph comebacker off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton in the Tigers' 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees.
The 25-year-old right-hander will miss the rest of the season. He missed 2 1/2 months this year after being hit on the foot by a comebacker off the bat of Toronto's Alejandro Kirk.
“I was just annoyed that it was the same foot, same spot basically,” Manning said. "There are really no positives out of this. It’s unlucky. It happens. I guess pretty cool to get hit by an MVP. I don’t know.”
Stanton's hardest-hit ball this season rebounded off Manning's foot, struck the pitcher on the backside and was gloved by Manning, who threw to first for the final out of the first inning. Manning immediately was attended to by an athletic trainer and manager A.J. Hinch, who said it was a different spot.
Manning was struck by Kirk’s 97.3 mph comebacker on April 11 and didn’t return to the Tigers until June 27. He is 5-4 with a 3.58 ERA in 15 starts.
“You can count probably on one hand how many pitchers have gotten hit in the foot with line drives this season. He’s had it twice. That’s incredibly unlucky and 119 off any part of the body is probably going to put you on the injured list," Hinch said. “I feel for him. He’s worked back from a couple of different things, some of it not arm related, which gives us tons of confidence that he’s going to bounce back out of this, but there’s not much you can do once you go through your delivery and the dude smokes the ball off you. All you can do is hope that the X-ray is going to come back negative. This one didn’t.”
