Braves' Merrifield rants about out-of-control pitchers after getting plunked in the head

ATLANTA (AP) — Whit Merrifield got lucky. He wasn't seriously injured when a 95-mph fastball struck him on the head.

Still, the Atlanta Braves second baseman is livid about the state of pitching in the big leagues, saying it's only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or even killed.

“The way pitchers are throwing now, there's no remorse or regard for throwing up and in,” Merrifield said after Tuesday's game against the Colorado Rockies. “Guys are throwing as hard as they can and they don't care where the ball goes.”

Merrifield was struck behind the right ear with a pitch from Jeff Criswell in the seventh inning of Atlanta's 3-0 victory.

Fortunately, the ball appeared to catch a bit of Merrifield's helmet, though he was still forced to leave the game. He wasn't in the lineup Wednesday but expects to return in a day or two after passing the concussion protocol and getting a clean bill of health from a precautionary CT scan.

“I just took 95 right off the head,” he said. “I’m very lucky that it got me in a good spot.”

Elsewhere, Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper had to leave a game at Toronto after he was hit on the left elbow by a pitch. Harper winced in pain and grabbed his elbow after he was struck by a 92 mph fastball from right-hander Bowden Francis in the first inning Wednesday.

Merrifield, who serves on MLB's competition committee, said pitchers must face some ramifications for hitting batters. He planned to discuss the issue on a conference call.

“Without being over dramatic, that was my life on the line out there," Merrifield said. “I’m sick of it. It’s happening way too much.”

The Braves have already had two players go down this season after being hit by pitches, and several others who had close calls.

Second baseman Ozzie Albies went on 10-day injured list in April with a broken right big toe after being hit by a curveball. Third baseman Austin Riley is expected to miss the rest of the regular season with a fractured right hand, the result of being plunked with a 97-mph fastball last month.

“Team are bringing pitchers up and they don't know where the hell it's going,” Merrifield said. “They throw 100 miles an hour so they say, ‘All right, we’ll see if he can get guys out. Just set up down the middle and throw it as hard as you can.’ It's driving me nuts. I hate where the game's at right now.”

In a different era, a team could expect payback when one of their batters was hit by a pitch. But MLB has cracked down on that sort of retaliation, and there's no way to go after the pitcher himself since baseball now has the designated hitter in both leagues.

“You can’t hit a guy back anymore, so there’s no fear that, ‘Oh, if I hit this guy, our guy is gonna get hit,'" Merrifield said. “And pitchers don’t have to hit anymore, so they don’t have to stand in the box.”

He noted that he had to leave the game after getting hit, while Criswell stayed in.

“It’s just ridiculous and it has to be fixed or, god forbid, something terrible is gonna happen," Merrifield said, “It’s frankly pathetic that some of the pitchers that are out there, they don’t know where the ball is going the majority of the time.”

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The Associated Press