That’s gotta hurt.
One day after breaking his nose during batting practice on Tuesday, baseball player Max Scherzer hit the field on Wednesday night for the Washington Nationals’ game against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The pitcher, 34, could be seen with a large black eye and a bump on his nose during Wednesday’s game — but still managed to pitch seven scoreless innings and strike out 10 Phillies players, leading the Nationals to a 2-0 victory, according to USA Today.
“Trust me, this thing looks a lot worse than it actually feels,” Scherzer said, the outlet reports. “I felt zero pain. There’s been plenty of other injuries where I felt a lot of pain I had to pitch through. I’ll hang my hat on those starts, but tonight I felt zero pain so this is … part of what you have to do.”
Video of Scherzer’s ill-fated batting practice, posted by the Nationals’ Twitter account, shows a baseball ricocheting off of his bat and hitting him directly in the face.
In a follow-up tweet posted later that day, the Nationals shared an update on his condition, announcing that he had broken his nose and that a CT scan showed no further damage. As of Tuesday night, it was still unclear whether he would play in Wednesday’s game.
Baseball fans reacted to Scherzer’s impressive performance on social media.
“Max Scherzer just struck out 10 and tossed seven shutout innings with a broken nose and black eye. Just incredible,” MLB.com writer Jamal Collier tweeted.
“Max Scherzer is starting a day after breaking his nose,” another Twitter user wrote, referencing how menacing the pitcher looked with his black eye. “I have not seen a more intimidating image in my entire time on Earth.”
“It’s one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in a while,” Scherzer’s teammate Brian Dozier said, according to USA Today. “He’s probably the best pitcher in our generation and you don’t get that status unless you take the ball every fifth day — it doesn’t matter if you’re doing good or doing bad, got a broken nose, you always want the ball.”
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