Nolan Reimold was back at Orioles camp on Saturday, a day after getting hit in the face by an Alex Cobb fastball.
From all reports, he didn't look pretty -- with a swollen jaw and bruising -- but he felt about as good as you can expect for someone who got hit in the face by a fastball fewer than 24 hours earlier. In fact, while many would wince at just the thought of what happened on Friday, Reimold said he's not only watched the video of his beaning, but he asked the team's video people to email it to him so he could forward it to friends and family.
Reimold finished with just a chipped tooth and no broken bones.
"I thought for sure something was wrong because it hit me so square, but all I've got is a chipped tooth in the back of my mouth," Reimold told reporters (via the Baltimore Sun). "It caught me right in the meat of the jaw, so I guess I'm pretty lucky.
"I didn't see any stars or anything like that, so I knew it wasn't anything in my head. It was just right int he jaw and I was checking my teeth."
Reimold said he was not only OK, but he hoped Cobb was, as well.
"He wasn't trying to hit me," Reimold said (via MASNSports.com). "It was a fastball and it just moved up and in. If my face wasn't there, it wouldn't have hit me. He didn't try to do it, obviously. I just said, 'Relay the message,' and I'm sure he did. Nothing to feel bad about."
On Friday, Cobb said he felt awful about the incident.
"That's probably the worst feeling you can have as a pitcher is seeing something like that, being the cause of a guy taking a step back in his career possibly," Cobb told reporters (via the Tampa Tribune). "It's something you never want to see on a baseball field, and when you're the cause of it, it's a feeling you can't describe."
Meanwhile, Orioles manager Buck Showalter told reporters he expected Reimold to return to the lineup as soon as Tuesday.
"I want to get him back out there," Showalter told reporters (via the Baltimore Sun). I was thinking about playing him in the 'B' game tomorrow, but I’ll wait until he gets to the dentist’s and gets that all out of the way. We’re going to try to get him back in the saddle as soon as we can."
