d'Arnaud suffers concussion after collision at plate

ATLANTA -- Thoughts of trying to explain one of the wackier plays of the young season seemed less important when it was learned it resulted in Braves catcher Travis d'Arnaud suffering his latest concussion.

“That’s nothing to mess around with at all, when your brain gets hit like that,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.

After Saturday night’s 4-1 loss to the Padres at Truist Park, Snitker said d’Arnaud will be placed on the seven-day injured list. Chadwick Tromp is expected to be promoted from Triple-A Gwinnett to now serve as Gold Glove catcher Sean Murphy’s backup.

d’Arnaud was sent home after being diagnosed with a concussion at the stadium. He was not taken to a hospital for further evaluations.

Suffering a second straight loss for the first time this season certainly wasn’t as troubling for Atlanta as losing d’Arnaud, who was injured during the second of the two collisions he was involved with during the fourth inning. As he lunged to his left to tag Rougned Odor, d’Arnaud was pushed back as his head connected with what appeared to be Odor’s left thigh or hip.

Odor was going to slide head first before realizing that may have led to a head-to-head collision with d’Arnaud.

“It was going to be ugly 100 percent,” Odor said. “It’s part of the game. You’re just trying to score in that situation. I got hurt like that two years ago. Same play. I hurt my knee. I was on third, and I was going to slide into home plate, and the [catcher] was in the middle of the plate.”

Confusion followed as many seasoned baseball folks attempted to figure out what had just happened. Odor didn’t touch the plate, but Ha-Seong Kim did behind him. Two runs were initially put on the scoreboard for the Padres, but one was erased after the Braves issued an appeal.

All of this was important and interesting, but Snitker’s primary concern shifted when he saw d’Arnaud being evaluated between innings.

“You just look at this guy and you can tell,” Snitker said. “It’s his eyes and all that.”

d’Arnaud has hit .333 (11-for-33) with three doubles while serving as a catcher and designated hitter through the season’s first nine games. The Braves will miss his production, but the primary concern is making sure he recovers from this latest head trauma. It was reported that the catcher suffered the third concussion of his professional career in 2014, when he was hit by an Alfonso Soriano backswing.

“I saw he got swung around and I knew he got hit somewhere in the top of his body,” Morton said of Saturday’s play. “When dealing with the vulnerable part of someone’s body, the number one concern is for their health.”

The Braves suffered a second straight loss because they were baffled by Michael Wacha, who matched a career-high 10 strikeouts over six scoreless innings. Morton surrendered three runs (two earned) over five innings, though it initially looked like his line might include four runs.

“I had no idea what was going on,” Morton said.

The confusion was created when Braves first baseman Matt Olson fielded Trent Grisham’s one-out grounder in the fourth and threw it to d’Arnaud, who reached to his right before lunging back to his left to tag Odor, not immediately realizing the throw had eluded his glove.

Odor went wide to avoid the tag and missed the plate. As he was returning to touch it with the ball at the backstop, Ha-Seong Kim crossed the plate. Odor then touched the plate, creating a question about what should be ruled once the lead runner was passed.

“There’s no passing at that point,” homeplate umpire Chad Fairchild said. “[Odor] is assumed to have touched the plate until an appeal play [is] made. If there would have been no appeal play, he would have scored.”

Fairchild then explained why Kim was awarded the run once the Braves issued their successful appeal.

“Once a following runner touches the plate, no preceding runner can come back and touch a missed plate,” Fairchild said.