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NEW YORK — The undisputed greatest catch at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies since 2004, produced one of the most gruesome injuries in franchise history, too.
On May 11, 2006, the Mets had the bases loaded and two outs when Xander Nady hit a long drive to deep center. Phillies center fielder Aaron Rowand raced back and never slowed down, crashing face-first into the chain-link bullpen fence portion of the center-field wall.
Somehow, Rowand held onto the ball and his club won the game 2-0, but he broke his nose and suffered fractures near his eye.
Before getting hurt, Rowand pleaded with Phillies management to make the wall safer, saying: “You need to pad this because I am going to kill myself on this thing. I’ll hit it. I promise.”
Shortly after Rowand’s injury, padding was added.
Just four days short of the 20th anniversary of Rowand’s memorable catch, Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez on Thursday crashed headfirst into the bullpen fence that is part of the left-center field wall at Yankee Stadium.
In the first inning of the Yankees’ 9-2 win, Rangers leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo hit a towering drive to deep left-center field. Dominguez darted back, leaped at the wall and made an amazing catch as his head banged off the chain-link fence.
“How do you hold on to that ball?” Yankees catcher J.C. Escarra asked. “Pretty impressive play, and he put his body on the line for us. It was amazing for him to do that.”
Amazing but scary, especially when Dominguez was lying on the ground and not moving for a few seconds. He’s fortunate that he’s passed the initial concussion tests and only suffered a low-grade AC sprain to his left shoulder, an injury that could sideline him for “a few weeks,” manager Aaron Boone said.
These danger zones exist in two parts of Yankee Stadium — the Yankees’ bullpen behind left-center field and the visitors’ bullpen behind the right-center field wall.
There’s padding on the top of the fence and horizontally on rails, but the outfield wall for most of the power alleys is a chain-link fence.
Should the Yankees add more padding?
Can they?
Can they replace the chain-link fence with a transparent wall that doesn’t prevent whoever is in the bullpen from following the game?
Cody Bellinger, who has played all three outfield positions in his two seasons with the Yankees, was deep in thought when NJ.com posed those questions at his locker following Thursday’s game.
“The thing with chain-link fences is they’re firm,” Bellinger said. “I don’t know what can be done, but as an outfielder I’m all about the safety.”
Yankees outfielders know that they have to be careful out there.
This past week was recent Triple-A call-up Max Schuemann’s first homestand with the Yankees. As usual, he worked out at all of the positions he plays — second base, shortstop, third base and both corner outfield spots.
His outfield prepping included a warning from Luis Rojas, the Yankees’ third base coach and outfield instructor:
Beware of the chain-link fence.
“I actually talked to Luis about that fence area,” Schuemann said. “That was one thing he talked about, and (Dominguez) ran into that hard.”
It might be time to ditch the chain-link fence.
“That Dominguez play out there was pretty scary,” Bellinger said. “Yeah, if they can do something, I’ll always support safety.”
DECENT DEBUT
Brendan Beck greatly enjoyed his one day as a member of the Yankees’ pitching staff.
Called up from Triple-A Thursday, the 27-year-old right-hander debuted as a big leaguer with a three-plus-innings, two-run relief outing that followed opener Paul Blackburn’s shaky but scoreless first.
“It was awesome, a lot of fun,” said Beck, a 2021 second-round draft pick out of Stanford. “It was a dream come true to do it at Yankee Stadium.”
A starter in Triple-A, Beck allowed two hits, including a solo homer, plus he walked three and struck out one.
“He walked a few guys and some of the hard contact found gloves, which was good,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But he looked in control out there and gave us just what we needed. We felt like if he could get us to the middle of the game, we were set up pretty good from there, and he did that.”
After the game, Beck was optioned back to Triple-A.
On Friday morning, the Yankees called up reliever right-hander Kervin Castro, who was 1-0 with a 3.14 ERA in 11 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Castro might be around for only two days because left-hander Carlos Rodon is coming off the injured list to start Sunday’s game after missing time earlier this season rehabbing from offseason elbow surgery.
VOLPE WATCH
Anthony Volpe had another rough night playing for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Thursday.
A day after going 0-for-6 with a baserunning mistake, he was 1-for-6 with an infield single, sacrifice fly, two strikeouts and an error in the RailRiders’ 10-8, 12-inning loss in Worcester.
Volpe, who began the season on the injured list, is 3-for-16 in three games since being optioned last Sunday. Counting his rehab assignment, he’s batting .233 with one homer and seven RBI in 16 games, nine with Double-A Somerset and seven with Scranton.
The Yankees passed over Volpe for a quick return when deciding Thursday to fill Dominguez’s roster spot with outfielder prospect Spencer Jones, who is expected to debut on Friday night.
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