Scary moment in Chicago on Friday afternoon.
White Sox first baseman José Abreu and Royals third baseman Hunter Dozier were involved in a frightening collision after Dozier began running to first on an infield popup.
Dozier put his head down and attempted to race to the bag, while Abreu was coming in from his defensive position to chase down the fly ball. Neither player noticed each other before colliding about 30 feet from home plate.
Scary moment in Chicago as Jose Abreu and Hunter Dozier collided pic.twitter.com/50CwQSL1H5
— Nick Pollack (@PitcherList) May 14, 2021
A slow-motion replay of the collision shows it was a bit more brutal than it looked initially:
SCARY moment for Jose Abreu. Hopefully he is okay. pic.twitter.com/mJ5vm1TUtZ
— Southside Showdown (@SoxShowdown) May 14, 2021
Both players stayed down on the field after the tackle; Abreu held his head, while Dozier lay motionless for a bit before getting up.
Abreu and Dozier would exit the game after the collision. The Royals at first announced that Dozier was day to day with a quad contusion and neck discomfort but later placed him on the seven-day concussion injured list.
We have made the following roster moves. #Royals pic.twitter.com/YmTL69F7hh
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) May 14, 2021
The White Sox said (per MLB.com) that Abreu suffered a facial contusion and laceration and a bruised knee. Manager Tony La Russa told reporters that Abreu would not play in Game 2 of Friday's day-night doubleheader and was day to day beyond that.
There's a lot of beef in the collision: Dozier stands at 6-4 and weighs 220 pounds while Abreu is listed at 6-3, 256. Some are faulting Dozier for not getting out of the way of Abreu because he didn't have his head up during his run to first.
