Brandon Drury hit by pitch, removed from game, appears okay

Brandon Drury hit by a pitch somewhere around the hand or wrist. Appeared to leave the game in pain. #Dbacks

— Steve Berthiaume (@BertDbacks) March 17, 2015

The injury came in the seventh inning of today's game against the Giants, with the Diamondbacks leading 5-0. A pitch up and in from Giants' pitcher Cody Hall appeared to catch our prospect, who was playing third-base. There's no details of the extent of the injury, but we can only keep our fingers crossed at this point. We did get a small degree of karmic retribution, in that the HBP loaded the bases, and pitcher Allen Webster then smacked a three-RBI double. Drury was 2-for-3 on the day, with three RBI and had been making a big impression this spring, hitting .435. He had been seeing a lot of playing time at second-base, and seemed to have a chance of making a roster spot.

Of course, the recent history of the Diamondbacks and hand injuries is not good: it's almost a team curse. We already lost Rule 5 catcher Oscar Hernandez this spring, with a broken bone in his hand. Last season we had to do with out Paul Goldschmidt for the last two months of the season, after he was hit by a pitch against the Pirates, and at the end of may, A.J. Pollock was hit on the hand during a checked swing against the Reds and had to miss 79 games while his hand healed. Going back further, Aaron Hill skipped two months in April 2013, after his left hand was broken by a pitch. We'll keep you updated with more news; I'm sure there will be X-rays.

Update

Phew. It appears initial reports of both the location and the severity of the injury were off by some distance.

Brandon Drury was hit on the elbow and says it's no big deal.

— Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) March 17, 2015

Just saw some #Dbacks players who said Drury was hit near triceps and should be OK.

— Steve Berthiaume (@BertDbacks) March 17, 2015

#Dbacks Drury hit in left elbow, but OK. "It just went numb."

— Jack Magruder (@JackMagruder) March 17, 2015

at the risk of stating the bleedin' obvious, that's good news. Outside of Hernandez, we seem to have been lucky with regard to injuries suffered since the start of spring training, and hopefully that will continue.