He’s battered and bruised, but Hall ‘just happy to be alive’

Jesse Hall “is just happy to be alive” after getting struck in the head with a line drive against Everett on Tuesday. Hall, who was knocked out of the game in the first inning of Spokane’s 10-2 win, threw a bullpen session before Thursday’s game for the first time since getting hit and said he experienced no problems.

“It (the bruise) just hurts a little bit,” he said, “but I’m just happy to be alive.”

Hall, who wanted to remain in the game and watched the rest of the game from the bullpen, was knocked out on a 2-2 inside fastball he threw to Luis Valbuena that was hit back to him. The ball went right above his glove and hit him on the top left side of his head.

“I thought I had caught the ball, but when I looked at my glove and I didn’t see the ball I knew I had gotten hit,” he said. “It took me about two seconds to realize where I was.”

Hall, a 19-year-old left-handed pitcher, said he felt his brain shutdown and then click back on in a period of about two seconds.

He said that the ball bounced all the way to the third baseman, who almost caught the ball for an out in foul territory, and that he was awake at the hospital until 4 a.m. According to Hall there were no signs of a concussion and a computed axial tomography (CAT) scan was not needed.

The swelling on his bruise has gone down, but he is unable to run for a long period of time.

Jaime Cardenas