What Royals & Cleveland closer Clase said after India drilled in head with pitch
The Kansas City Royals infielder Jonathan India exited Sunday’s game against Cleveland in the ninth inning at Kauffman Stadium.
The reason: In a scary late-game moment, India was drilled in the helmet by a pitch thrown by Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase.
Clase, a hard-throwing right-hander had thrown a fastball high and inside on India one pitch earlier. The 27-year-old’s next offering was even more up and in, the baseball colliding with India’s helmet, clipping his ear flap and grazing his face.
Holding his hands to his head, India, 28, immediately exited the game alongside members of the Royals’ training staff. MJ Melendez took first base as a pinch-runner for India.
India was undergoing a medical evaluation late Sunday afternoon following the conclusion of the Royals’ 6-2 loss in the season-opening series finale. He finished the day 1-for-3 at the plate.
“He’s up and walking around,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He’s getting looked at by the doctors right now. So I really don’t have any sort of an update (yet).”
Royals teammates expressed their concern for India after the game. First baseman Vinnie Pasquantino was still processing the injury when approached in the clubhouse.
But he was visibly frustrated with the situation.
“My view of it was, I watched him get hit in the (expletive) face,” Pasquantino said. “And I’m still kind of collecting my thoughts on it. But (Clase) threw a pitch that he doesn’t ever throw, the pitch before which was a four-seam fastball. It was his first one of the year. Then, the next pitch, you are trying to come back up and in with the next pitch.”
Pasquantino understood the analytics behind the pitch sequence and made it clear that he didn’t feel there was any intent behind Clase’s plunking of India.
“You’re trying to let a pitch ride and it didn’t,” Pasquantino said. “And it hit him right in the face after almost hitting him in the face the pitch before. “Obviously, I’m upset by it. I’m more upset for Jon because we don’t know what’s going on with him right now.”
Through an interpreter, Clase indicated the weather was a factor in his ability to grip the baseball Sunday. The mercury never broke 50 for the series finale after Saturday’s high reached the mid-70s.
“It was cold. I couldn’t feel my fingers, my hand,” Clase said. “It was the first time that I’ve thrown in this kind of weather this year. I didn’t have the feeling, so that ball slipped out of my hand and hit him.”
Sunday’s starting pitcher for the Royals, Michael Wacha, said it was a scary situation.
“You hate seeing that,” said Wacha, a longtime MLB veteran at age 33. “It’s nothing you ever want to see on a baseball field with your guys, with another team, and we’re just hoping he is alright. It was good to see him walking off the field there. Hopefully he gets back out there soon.”
India was acquired from the Cincinnati Reds this offseason. He made his Royals debut on opening day and started in left field Saturday in the series’ second game against the Guardians.
Clase said he made sure to text Royals captain Salvador Perez in an attempt to reach out to India directly after the game.
“I texted Salvy to ask him how India was doing,” Clase said, “and to apologize to the team and India.
“I said, ‘Please just check on him and say that it wasn’t intentional. It was just a pitch that slipped out of my hands.’”
This story was originally published March 30, 2025 at 5:49 PM.
