The Upper Deck

Welcome to The Upper Deck, Baseball America’s daily look at the biggest stories around the game and some lighter fare.

FREAK INJURY

Savage foul ball hits Colin Moran in the face. pic.twitter.com/kHSTkaPDxH

— Pete Gilbert (@WBALPete) July 23, 2017

Colin Moran, in just his second big league game, ended up on the disabled list in an ugly manner. The Astros third baseman was taken to hospital Saturday after fouling a ball off the left side of his face in a game against Baltimore. Moran fouled off a pitch by Baltimore’s Darren O’Day and the ball went straight up and hit him in the face. Moran was bleeding and trainers rushed out onto the field and applied towels to his face. He tried to walk off under his own power, but his knees buckled and a cart took him off the field.

KERSHAW HURT

.@ClaytonKersh22 left today’s game with right low back tightness. pic.twitter.com/x1aLxU5btO

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 23, 2017

The Dodgers are running away in the NL West and probably don’t need Clayton Kershaw to close out the division title. But losing him for any length of time that threatens his readiness for the playoffs could be problematic. Kershaw is headed for the disabled list after his back tightened up Sunday against the Braves. Kershaw, who is 15-2, 2.04, missed 2 1/2 months last season because of a herniated disk. It’s unclear how long he’ll be out now, but it could prompt the Dodgers to get more aggressive with the trade deadline a week from today.

K IS FOR KLUBER

Corey Kluber struck out a season-high 14 batters Sunday as Cleveland finished a three-game sweep of the Blue Jays. Kluber reached double figures in strikeouts for the ninth time in 16 starts. His career high in Ks is 18 against St. Louis in 2015.

NOT-SO-SAFECO FIELD

Seems like Aaron Judge is over that HR Derby slump. Judge cracked two homers this weekend in Seattle, including one bomb Friday night that nearly left spacious Safeco Field. Statcast was unable to accurately measure the blast, so let’s just say it went to Vancouver.

OFF THE BASEBALL PATH

The moment of glory for #TeamShark!!! #PhelpsVsShark #SharkWeek pic.twitter.com/NWYp1CwiRa

— Shark Week (@SharkWeek) July 24, 2017

OK, it’s not baseball, or even tangentially connected to baseball. But who doesn’t love Discovery Channel’s Shark Week? It began Sunday with Olympic champion Michael Phelps racing a great white shark.

Um, what??

Yep, you heard that right. Except, it really wasn’t what it promised. Sure, Phelps was in one lane, and a shark was in another, but it was a virtual matchup, at the Discovery Channel calculated a great white’s speed over 100 meters, and superimposed the footage of the shark as Phelps swam in real life.

The shark won the race, finishing the 100 in 36.1 seconds to Phelps’ 38.1 seconds. But hey, it has to be considered was a win-win because Phelps didn’t get eaten, right?

THAT’S BOSS, BABY