Umpire stays in game after unbelievably wild throw hits him in head

Cardinals shortstop Edmundo Sosa airmailed a throw so badly that it snuck up on first base umpire Junior Valentine, knocking him down and keeping the ball in the infield.

Sosa made an impressive spinning grab on a grounder up the middle in the bottom of the second inning of Monday night’s Mets-Cardinals game. But the subsequent throw to first was uniquely bad, hitting Valentine squarely on the side of his head. The umpire, intently staring at the base, didn’t see the ball coming.

Somehow, bleeding out of his face, Valentine stayed in the game after being attended to by trainers.

The batter on the play was fully familiar with the pain of a sudden baseball to the head. The Mets’ Kevin Pillar broke his nose when a pitch hit him in the face this spring.