Marlins’ Derek Dietrich hit in the face by bad hop

Jul 6, 2013; St. Louis, MO, USA; Miami Marlins second baseman Derek Dietrich (51) is congratulated by teammates after hitting a solo home run off of St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Joe Kelly (not pictured) during the fourth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Rough couple of days to be a baseball player’s face.

Wednesday night Aroldis Chapman of the Reds was struck in the forehead by a line drive, suffering fractures above his eye and nose.

Thursday, the Marlins’ Derek Dietrich had a ball take a funny hop on him and smack him squarely in the bridge of the nose, leaving some nasty marks.

Dietrich suffered a non-displaced fracture of his nose. Not as bad as what happened to Aroldis Chapman, but still not pleasant.

After this rash of ball-to-the-face injuries, we have to ask, what can be done to make baseball safer?

Spongier balls? Helmets with full face masks for players at all positions? Replace human players with monkeys that have undergone forced evolution?

Really, it’s quite a dilemma. I don’t know what you do short of accept the inherent dangers of the game and stop crying for change every time a fluke injury happens.

Like Call to the Pen on Facebook.
Follow Call to the Pen on Twitter.
Subsribe to the Fansided Daily Newsletter. Sports news all up in your inbox.