Trevor Story getting hit by a pitch
Horrible hit-by-pitch injuries were a dime a dozen this season. Bryce Harper, Jean Segura, and Mickey Moniak on the Phillies, Starling Marte from the Mets, Trevor Story and Chris Sale, to name a few of this season’s victims.
Story had already been hit in the head during a late April game against the Toronto Blue Jays, but ended up staying in the game. It was on July 12 that he sustained an injury that would sideline him for a considerable stretch.
In the fifth inning of a game at the Trop, Tampa Bay Rays righty Corey Kluber’s pitch made contact with Story’s hand. The infielder immediately went to get checked by a trainer and then left the game. The injury, first thought to be a contusion, was eventually diagnosed as a hairline fracture.
At that point in the season, Story had 15 home runs and 58 RBI under his belt and his team was 47-41. By the time Story returned to the lineup, it was August 27 and the Sox were 62-65.
Chris Sale getting hit by a pitch
In a brutal coincidence, Chris Sale’s first start of the season was the game in which Trevor Story got hurt, and he’d end up joining him on the Injured List five days later with a similar affliction.
In the Story HBP game, Sale had shut out the Rays for five innings. It was a promising season debut for the unlucky southpaw, who’d missed almost exactly two years of play between August 2019 and August 2021 due to elbow inflammation, pneumonia, Tommy John surgery, and coronavirus.
The following turn in the rotation, Sale faced the Yankees on July 17. In the bottom of the first, his pitching hand received the full force of an Aaron Hicks line drive, which fractured his pinky. He had surgery the following day.
Sale was actually expected to return before the end of the season, but less than a month later, he went for a bike ride after a throwing session and broke his wrist. Another surgery, another season over.