{"id":253363,"date":"2026-07-28T00:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T00:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/253363\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T00:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T00:34:14","slug":"pirates-esmerlyn-valdez-leaves-game-after-getting-hit-by-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/253363\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates’ Esmerlyn Valdez leaves game after getting hit by pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Esmerlyn Valdez left Monday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks after getting hit by a pitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pirates’ rookie was hit by a 91.4 mph pitch on his left hand by pitcher Merrill Kelly in the bottom of the fourth inning at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Kelly threw a high and inside fastball that connected with Valdez’s hand, leading the 22-year-old to double over in pain. He left the field with the team’s trainers and did not return.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Arizona<\/p>\n

Esmerlyn Valdez #55 of the Pittsburgh Pirates reacts, while being examined by training staff, after being hit by a pitch during the fourth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at PNC Park.<\/p>\n

Joe Sargent \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jared Triolo replaced him as a pinch runner, and Tyler Callihan went to right field. The Pirates said Valdez is being evaluated by the team’s medical staff, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s\u00a0Colin Beazley<\/a>. No other information was immediately released.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Valdez is in the midst of a breakout rookie season. Coming into Monday’s game, he had 14 home runs and 36 RBIs in 123 at-bats over 37 games. The rookie right fielder has a 1.092 on-base plus slugging percentage and a .293 batting average.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Sunday’s home win over the Chicago Cubs, the 22-year-old hit a home run, had two hits and two RBIs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Valdez was called up from Triple-A Indianapolis in May. He is among the players in contention for the National League Rookie of the Year award.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pirates are hosting the Diamondbacks for a three-game series at PNC Park before starting an eight-game road trip in Cincinnati and Milwaukee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Esmerlyn Valdez left Monday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks after getting hit by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4662,11199,73,75,74,10997,26622],"class_list":["post-253363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-pnc-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}