Last May, the Giants lost a superstar to a home-plate collision, when catcher Buster Posey suffered a broken leg at the hands of a Scott Cousins hit. Sunday, there was another ugly collision at home plate, this time it was two-time Cy Young winning pitcher Tim Lincecum on the receiving end.
This collision wasn't of the intentional variety, though. It came on a wild pitch in the fourth inning. Collin Cowgill of the A's slid into home head-first. He arrived right as Lincecum was getting down to his knees to catch the throw from Posey and Cowgill's momentum carried him up and through Lincecum. Cowgill's helmet hit Lincecum on the chin. The timing and placement of everything couldn't have been worse for Lincecum.
MLB.com has the video.
Lincecum appeared pretty shaken up on the play, though he didn't initially seem to have a serious injury. He was checked -- specifically his left hand/wrist area was being looked at -- by an athletic trainer, but he stayed in. He finished the inning by walking Jemile Weeks and inducing a Cliff Pennington foul out. He didn't pitch into the fifth inning, though. Through four, he had thrown 90 pitches and allowed four earned runs. Surely most games he'd stay in with such a line but maybe manager Bruce Bochy felt like he was playing it safe. Plus, his spot in the order came up.