Arizona Diamondbacks left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was carted off the field on Monday due to a right leg injury that occurred when he averted a collision with a teammate.
With two outs in the sixth inning, the Texas Rangers’ Rowdy Tellez hit a line drive to left-center field, and Arizona center fielder Blazer Alexander made a diving catch. However, on the play, Gurriel jumped behind Alexander to get out of the way and took an awkward fall.
Gurriel immediately grabbed his right knee and teammates summoned the club’s medical personnel. Eventually Gurriel stepped onto a cart that drove him away.
After the Diamondbacks lost 7-5 in 10 innings, Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said Gurriel would have an MRI exam on Tuesday.
Lovullo added, “Say some prayers for him tonight. It’s a situation where we’re going to hope for the best, but I don’t think it looks great.”
Alexander was playing center field for the first time in his major league career. He said, according to MLB.com, “I made the play and I had no idea what kind of happened behind me. I made the play, I was kind of looking at the crowd and started running in. I see (shortstop Geraldo) Perdomo running towards me. I was like, what’s going on? Looked back and Gurriel was down.”
Gurriel, 31, went 0-for-2 on Monday, leaving him with a .248 average, a .295 on-base percentage and a .419 slugging percentage in 129 games this year. He has 19 homers, 80 RBIs and a career-high 10 stolen bases.
After playing for the Toronto Blue Jays from 2018-22, Gurriel signed as a free agent with the Diamondbacks and was an All-Star in his first year with his new team, when he hit .261/.309/.463 with 24 homers and 82 RBIs in 145 games.
In eight major league seasons, Gurriel has a career .274/.319/.454 batting line with 129 home runs and 491 RBIs in 875 games.
