A week after being viciously beaned by Calgary starter Edwin Gilliam while leading off a game, team doctors have suggested that the rookie 1B/DH Miguel Fernandez may well be unavailable for the post season. Official word is that Fernandez will be out as long as three weeks, which shelves him for the rest of the regular season. Assuming the Nine receive a bye into their usual choking Doubleday round, Fernandez could be recovered. We’re talking about concussion protocol here, however, and given that, no one in the front office is holding their breath. The team recalled Dimiao Laqui from their AAA club, even though Indianapolis is currently in a tough post season battle.
Fernandez, who has had a very successful campaign, continues to report headaches and some instability.
Fans have taken to VR media to put “pressure” on Gilliam, who was rattled enough by the reaction to the beaning that he gave up five runs and didn’t get out of the fourth inning afterward. “I didn’t mean to hit him,” Gilliam said. “I just needed him to get off the plate.”
Fans, however, have taken to rumors that Gilliam was retaliating for an episode that happened two weeks earlier while the Nine were in Calgary. The story goes that Fernandez, who is 24 and single, had made a connection with Gilliam’s girlfriend while the two were in a nightclub late the night before the series kicked off. Though newspapers were slight in their details of the incident, Gilliam apparently shoved Fernandez, and Fernandez responded with a question about why Gilliam couldn’t let the woman maker her own decisions. Given the beaning happened on the second pitch of the first at bat of the game, and given that the first pitch was a fastball under Fernandez’s chin, these fans are putting two and two together and suggesting four might be the right answer.
Fernandez was hitting .333 at the time of the beaning, with 11 doubles and a pair of homers and 16 RBI in 118 plate appearances primarily against lefthanded pitchers.
No word has come from the commissioner’s office on any possible suspension for Gilliam, and none is expected. Calgary management is rumored to be reaching out to personal security companies.
