CHICAGO -- White Sox second baseman Yoan Moncada and right fielder Willy Garcia exited the team's 7-6 comeback victory over the Blue Jays in the sixth inning Monday following a scary collision in shallow right field while chasing a Darwin Barney popup.
Despite how serious it looked at the time, it appears as if both players avoided serious injury. Moncada was diagnosed with a right knee contusion and is listed as day to day. X-rays were negative, and the injury is being described as muscular, so an MRI won't be necessary. Garcia has a head contusion and will be evaluated again Tuesday.
"We were in the training room, in different beds but the same room," said Garcia, sporting a welt on the side of his head, through interpreter Billy Russo. "We were talking and we're glad we're fine."
"It was a very scary moment for me," said White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu, also through Russo. "I didn't know who to assist at the moment, because that was a very bad collision. They're good now, and the whole team is happy for them."
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With the bases loaded and two outs, Barney lofted the fly ball between the two that Garcia appeared to catch with a slide. Garcia called for the ball, but said Moncada didn't hear him since they were near the noise from the stands. Moncada tried to jump out of the way as Garcia made the slide, and in doing so, Moncada's right knee hit Garcia flush in the side of the head.
Garcia caught the ball but it rolled out of his glove as he crumpled to the ground after being hit by Moncada. The umpires ruled it a no-catch, resulting in a double for Barney, a call that was confirmed after a challenge from the White Sox.
Garcia said after the victory he was knocked unconscious by the impact and didn't remember what happened until he saw the video. Moncada, the No. 1 prospect in baseball per MLBPipeline.com, writhed in pain before being taken off by cart through the center-field gate.
"When I saw the video, I saw the collision, I was like, 'Wow, that was hard.' " Garcia said. "I feel much better now. At first I wasn't feeling good."
"You never want your teammates to get hurt. There's no doubt about it," Shields said. "Your first thoughts are, 'Are they OK?' It looked like he got knocked out. He got hit pretty hard, so that's the first thought."
Replays of the collision were shown on the center-field scoreboard and the Guaranteed Rate Field crowd gasped each time. Moncada was 0-for-2 with a strikeout in his two at-bats, leaving him at 4-for-38 with 16 strikeouts for the season.
On the first play of the game, Abreu and Garcia almost collided on Jose Bautista's pop fly to right. But Abreu made the catch and ended up in a hug from Garcia, with both men laughing.
Those smiles were featured again postgame, as a smiling Abreu said "Moncada, very good" in English both before and after his media session.
"That's a Texas Leaguer and both of them are aggressively charging to try to make the catch," said White Sox manager Rick Renteria, who pointed out Moncada almost was able to leap over Garcia. "Those plays happen.
"I wish I could tell you it would take more communication. But when two guys are going at a ball that's in between both of them, every now and then those occur."