Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole came no more than an inch away from a serious injury — and possibly worse — on Thursday afternoon when a line drive nearly hit him square in the face.
It was Cole’s counterpart, Detroit Tigers pitcher Jordan Zimmermann, who ripped the ball back up the middle. How close did it come to nailing Cole? It knocked his hat right off his head.
YIKES. Gerrit Cole barely avoided absolute disaster. pic.twitter.com/FgQoGi2ZjS
— El Gran Iván (@theiri) April 14, 2016
It’s tough to tell, but it looked like Cole was able to get just enough of his glove on the ball. If he reacted a millisecond later, he might have ended up looking like that softball player who wasn’t as lucky a couple months ago.
H/T Eye on Baseball
