San Diego Padres first baseman Luis Arraez was stretchered off the field at Daikin Park in Houston on Sunday night after colliding with Astros second baseman Mauricio Dubon while running out a bunt.
Arraez was busting it down the line after dragging his bunt toward the bag, and Dubon noticed that first baseman Christian Walker and pitcher Framber Valdez were not going to get to the base in time to make the out.
Walker flipped the ball to Dubon, who just beat Arraez to the bag, but he didn’t provide Arraez any way to run through the bag. In a blink, Arraez and Dubon collided, and the Padres star caught the worst of it.
The scene was a scary one as Arraez lay still on the grass near first base. Medical staff rushed to help the designated hitter. After an 11-minute delay, he was placed on a stretcher with his neck and head secured and carted off the field to Houston Methodist Hospital.
The Padres released a statement later saying that Arraez was in stable condition.
“He is currently stable, conscious, responsive, and able to move his extremities,” the statement reads.
Arraez also gave a thumbs-up to the crowd at Daikin Park to show he was conscious and aware, which led to a positive reception from everyone.
“That was very scary,” Padres manager Mike Shildt told ESPN’s Buster Olney during the “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast. “We don’t see those kind of collisions in our sport a whole lot. Luis is a really, really tough guy, and to see him down like that, you know something is pretty serious. Took a pretty good blow, sounds like he’s stable now, has feeling in his extremities, is alert, aware of what took place, which is clearly good. Now we’re worried about – because he’s got a little bit of a cut on the jaw – worried about the jaw and what’s the stability of that. And, of course, the cervical, making sure it’s stable as well.”
Arraez’s Padres teammates on the field were visibly shaken, with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado praying together.
“This is a very close group, man, this is a group that really, really genuinely loves each other,” Shildt added. “People say that a lot, but there’s a lot of real love. Luis is a big part of our team, big part of the heart of the club. I just told him I loved him and we’re going to be all right and we pray for him, just thinking about him.”
The high-contact Arraez is a clear asset in the Padres’ hot start to the season, owning a .287 average to begin the year. Arraez went 1-for-18 to start the year, but he has been hitting .338 over the last 17 games.
Arraez has been a batting champion in each of the past three seasons and notched 200 hits in 2023 and 2024.
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