One of those hold-your-breath-and-hope-both-players-are-okay situations happened on Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium.
In the fourth inning, Los Angeles Angels shortstop Erick Aybar and left fielder Matt Joyce ran in pursuit of a pop fly to shallow left field. Aybar made the play, but both players crashed to the ground after his knee careened into Joyce's chin.
Angels personnel rushed to the scene to check on the status of both men, and while Aybar was a bit banged up Joyce got the worst of it. He was helped up and off the field by the Angels' medical staff, but later told the O.C. Register's Pedro Moura that, "I really don't remember walking off the field." The training staff gave Joyce the concussion test in the dugout after the play and recommended to the coaching staff that he be removed from the game as a precaution.
The club expects to place him on the 7-day concussion DL sometime early this week.
Seeing an event such as that from the vantage point of the dugout has to be harrowing, a sentiment manager Mike Scioscia conveyed to Moura: "Your heart stops for a second as you're seeing these guys dive on the field."
Hopefully, the concussion wasn't particularly severe and Joyce will be able to overcome it relatively quickly for the Halos.
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