Yankees pitcher Bryan Mitchell has seen the video of the comebacker that hit him in the face Monday and had a very simple reaction.
"Wow, I'm lucky for sure," the rookie right-hander said Monday (via ESPN).
MORE: Sports injuries that made us cringe | A-Rod never expected this Yankee love
Mitchell, speaking to reporters the day after the liner off Eduardo Nunez's bat felled him, wore stitches across his broken nose and showed the mangled bill of the hat he was wearing on the comebacker that deflected into center field.
"I'm fortunate to be where I am right now," he said, adding later that he never saw the ball off Nunez's bat.
Mitchell, 24, said he had been hit by comebackers before, but knew this was different. He recounted kneeling and finding some comfort in the fact that he could see and that his face was intact.
"As soon as it hit me, I knew that I had just gotten hit, but my eyes were OK, my jaw was OK," he said (via MLB.com). "I knew that I was basically alive. I basically said, 'I'm all right, let's just get me off the field.' That was really it. It was pretty quick. It was bad, though."
He was placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list, and, according to ESPN, there is a feeling he could return to a major league mound shortly after he sits out the week.
When he does return, he said he doesn't expect to have any fears — especially considering how a play that looked so horrifying turned out: "It seems like a broken nose is not that bad, considering."
