HOUSTON — Angels left fielder Taylor Ward was back in the clubhouse on Monday, with a long cut above his right eye and a feeling of relief that nothing worse happened.
Ward said the cut required about 20 stitches, including repairing a blood vessel and a muscle, but there was no damage to his eye and he did not suffer a concussion. He said he’s hoping to play again in the coming days.
“Way better,” Ward said when asked how he was feeling. “I slept well last night and woke up with no headache or anything like that. Very lucky.”
Ward crashed face-first into the metal out-of-town scoreboard on the left field fence at Houston’s Daikin Park on Sunday. He was bleeding so much that he was taken off the field on a cart and transported in an ambulance to the hospital for further tests.
“It certainly looked a lot worse than it turned out,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “We’re thankful for that. Going through it with Taylor last night, he just took it like a champ. Obviously the stitches are where they are. If he was a hockey player, he might play today, but he’s not. So I’m really happy and fortunate for him that it turned out to be as good as we could hope for.”
Ward said he could have played the ball better to avoid the injury.
“I was pretty far in the gap, and I thought I had room in that little corner there,” Ward said. “Obviously I didn’t. And the ball’s hit pretty hard too. I should have definitely peeked, obviously. Another learning situation out there. Should have peeked, and I think that would have helped a lot if I would have, but didn’t. Tried to go for the ball and the wall was there.”
After the incident, Angels right fielder Jo Adell said the fence is unsafe. There is padding around the edges of the scoreboard but the scoreboard itself is metal, with a grid of windows where numbers are manually hung. Adell was hurt when he hit the wall in 2021.
On Sunday, Ward also said the fence could be improved, but he also took some responsibility.
“It would be nice if I hit padding, for sure,” Ward said. “But you’ve also got to know where the wall is too, so there’s both sides of it. But it would be nice if they did something to it, just for the next guy. And hopefully I’m not the next guy. I just hope that they do something about it, just to prevent stuff like this.”
MOORE DEMOTED
The Angels sent second baseman Christian Moore to Triple-A on Monday. Moore hit .195 with a .623 OPS. He also made two costly defensive mistakes in the Angels’ loss on Friday. Moore started 16 of the Angels’ 25 games since coming off the injured list, and he came off the bench in six others.
Montgomery said the Angels wanted Moore to play every day, and they also wanted to get more of a look at infielder Oswald Peraza, who has started to show signs of offensive improvement this weekend.
Montgomery said Moore was not the same as before he suffered a sprained thumb in early July in Atlanta. He missed a month.
“I think it’s probably affecting his swing a little bit,” Montgomery said. “The swing has a little bit more length here lately, which could be a combination of not playing every day as well as just pressing a little bit.”
The Angels activated Chris Taylor from the injured list and called up infielder Scott Kingery. They were able to add one position player to the roster for September roster expansion.
FARRIS UP
The Angels called up left-hander Mitch Farris to fill their extra September pitching spot.
Farris, 24, is expected to make his major league debut by starting Tuesday in Kansas City. José Ureña, who was added to the roster on Sunday, is the main candidate to start the Wednesday game.
Farris had a 4.27 ERA with 142 strikeouts in 116 innings at Double-A. He had a 1.52 ERA with 32 strikeouts in 23⅔ innings in his last four starts. His changeup is his best pitch.
The Angels acquired Farris from the Atlanta Braves in exchange for right-hander Davis Daniel last December.
NOTES
The Angels placed outfielder Gustavo Campero and right-hander Carson Fulmer on the 60-day injured list, which opened 40-man roster spots for Farris and Kingery. …
Bullpen coach Steve Karsay is undergoing hip surgery that will prevent him from being with the team for the rest of the season. Eddie Guardado, one of the Angels’ minor league pitching coaches, will take over as the major league bullpen coach. …
First baseman Nolan Schanuel (left wrist contusion) hit some flips in the batting cage on Monday. Schanuel is hoping to be back sometime this week. …
Third baseman Yoán Moncada was out of the lineup because he’s been dealing with a sore right shoulder, Montgomery said. …
The Angels celebrated right-hander Luis Garcia for reaching 10 years of major league service time on Monday.
UP NEXT
Angels (LHP Mitch Farris, major-league debut) at Royals (RHP Michael Lorenzen, 5-8, 4.62 ERA), Tuesday, 4:40 p.m. PT, FDSN West, 830 AM