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Justin Upton injured on collision with teammate

Evan Desai
Evan Desai

Halo Hangout

Jun 1, 2021; San Francisco, California, USA; Los Angeles Angels left fielder Justin Upton (10) is pulled from the game after injury on the previous play during the fourth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports

Justin Upton left in the fourth inning of tonight’s LA Angels game vs. the San Francisco Giants.

Kean Wong and Justin Upton ended up colliding when running after a fly ball in shallow-left field, and the LA Angels trainers had to come out and check on both of them.

The way I see it, Wong should not have continued to pursue the ball when Upton clearly had the chance to get under the baseball and make the catch.

The outfielder should have the priority in that situation due to the outfielder not having to run backwards. Running backwards also gives the fielder less vision than the fielder who has the ball in front of him, and that clearly impacted the play.

It’s possible, however, that Upton didn’t call it, and that’s why Wong did what he did. These collisions happen, and Wong by no means attempted to injure Upton.

While these things happen, they still seem to always have us worrying about our guys.

Upton was, however, able to get up and walk back to the dugout on his own weight. I’m not a medical expert, but I do think he’ll be alright.

The likelihood of the Giants coming back from an 8-0 deficit is slim, and Joe Maddon knew better than to risk a player who’s playing as hot as Upton in a blowout like this.

In the game, Upton had gone up to the plate three times, flying out and walking twice in the leadoff spot. Upton’s been on fire since he started batting leadoff, hitting .300 with two home runs and four RBI in his seven games at that spot heading into tonight’s game.

Jose Rojas has come into the game in place of the injured outfielder.

Evan Desai

Evan Desai

Evan Desai has covered MLB with FanSided for 3 years, first as a contributor for FanSided's New York sports publication--Empire Writes Back--and now as the expert at Halo Hangout, the Angels publication for the network. He also runs Reign Of Troy, the USC FanSided publication, and has covered college sports since 2019--most notably USC and UCLA for the Pac-12 Network, University of Arizona and Grand Canyon University for Arizona PBS, and Arizona State University for Sports Illustrated's ASU publication. He has also run the Clippers FanSided publication in the past, Clipperholics, and has made two stops at NBC Sports.