One of the silver linings of the Rockies’ woeful season got carted off the field Thursday at Coors Field.
Rookie outfielder Brenton Doyle crashed into the center field wall in the ninth inning while attempting to rob a home run by Jorge Soler. The ball was in his mitt but Doyle couldn’t come down with the catch as he crumbled to the warning track in pain.
Doyle clutched his right leg multiple times while being tended to by trainers before briefly standing up on his own power and getting carted off. After the game, Rockies manager Bud Black said Doyle has a right knee contusion and will hopefully avoid a trip to the injured list.
“We’ll know more (on Friday after imaging) how it sets up, but we’re hoping it’s just a contusion similar to the one he suffered in Albuquerque about three weeks ago,” Black said. “When Soler hit it, I didn’t think he got it, but Doyle got a great jump on it and initially, I thought he caught it. When I saw him go down, we all gasped, and from that point on you just cross your fingers.”
Doyle said he “just hit the crap out of” his knee against the wall.
“It didn’t feel good, and it still doesn’t feel good,” Doyle said. “I’m just thankful that all the ligaments are good and I shouldn’t be (sidelined) for too much time. It should take at least a couple days to get better… I didn’t realize how close I was to the wall, and it just blind-sided me.”
Doyle said he didn’t necessarily need the cart to get off the field — “I feel like I could’ve walked off” — and that he plans on continuing to bring a hyper-aggressive approach to the outfield.
“I love playing like that,” Doyle said. “I’m a man of my word (on playing hard), so I’ll probably end up doing it again eventually. I’m 100% effort out there and I want to track everything down I can.”
Following Doyle’s exit in the ninth, right-hander Pierce Johnson gave up another two-run homer as the Marlins plated four runs in the inning to tie the game, 6-6.
Coming into Thursday’s series finale, Doyle was hitting .239 with four homers and seven steals after debuting on April 24. Thursday was his first career game hitting in the leadoff spot, and he was 1 for 4 with an RBI and a walk before exiting.
The Rockies hung on for a 7-6 victory on rookie Ezequiel Tovar’s first career walk-off, an RBI single.
“Initially I was worried this was something that could put me out for a good bit of time, but thankfully it’s not,” Doyle said. “And I’m glad we got the win today. Hitting leadoff was cool.”
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