Angels feel the pain after pitcher Alex Cobb is hit by line drive

When Tampa Bay’s Alex Cobb was struck in the right ear by a line drive off the bat of Kansas City’s Eric Hosmer on Saturday he became the fifth pitcher since September to be hit in the head by a batted ball.

Cobb was hospitalized overnight and will be out at least a week. And though Angel reliever Kevin Jepsen says every pitcher is aware of the risks when he takes the mound, that doesn’t make the replays any easier to watch.

“It makes you cringe,” he said Sunday. “It’s tough.”

Jepsen is fortunate never to have been hit but he says it’s not hard to understand why it’s happening so frequently.

“That ball was going a hundred million miles an hour and you don’t have time to react,” he said. “You don’t have time to get your glove up all the time. You get the front part of your face out of the way, that seems to be the common [reaction].

“You just kind of take your eyes off it because you want to get your face out of the way.”

Meanwhile Angel outfielder Brad Hawpe sympathizes with Hosmer. Eight seasons ago Hawpe fractured the right elbow of Chicago Cubs pitcher Mark Prior with a line drive that was clocked at 117 mph.

“You feel terrible,” he said. “You’re trying to hit the ball in the middle of the field. And unfortunately for the pitcher, the pitcher’s in the middle of the field. You and the pitcher both would prefer for the ball to go past him for a base hit.”

“He’ll never forget it,” Hawpe added of Hosmer, who visited Cobb in the hospital Saturday. “I’m sure he’s thinking about it right now.”

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