Scary Moments for A’s Pitcher McCarthy

Oakland A's pitcher Brandon McCarthy was involved with one of the scariest plays of the season on Wednesday afternoon when a line drive from Erick Aybar of the Los Angeles Angels hit him in the head during the fourth inning. The hit was so quick that the tall right-hander had almost no time to defend himself and he immediately fell to the ground near the pitcher's mound at Oakland Coliseum.

Though it was hard not to fear the worst after hearing the sickening thwack of the ball meeting his skull, McCarthy rose to a sitting position where he was attended by a trainer before leaving the field under his own power. The team's official Twitter account then passed along the encouraging news that McCarthy had never lost consciousness and had only been taken to a hospital for precautionary reasons.

I'm not going to lie.  I clicked on the video (courtesy of mlb.com) not knowing what to expect.  I will say that just the sound of the ball colliding with the skull alone made me wince.  But you be the judge for yourself.