LAKELAND, Fla. -- Toronto Blue Jays pitcher T.J. House was taken off the field in an ambulance Friday after being struck on the head by a line drive in the ninth inning of a spring training game against the Detroit Tigers.
The Blue Jays said Friday night that test results at Lakeland Regional Medical Center were normal, and that House would remain hospitalized overnight for observation.
Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said House's injury was among the scariest things he has witnessed in a baseball game.
"When I went out there, his face was in his glove," Ausmus said. "There was blood on his face, blood in the glove -- everything."
House, 27, was hit on the back of the head by a ball off the bat of catcher John Hicks. The ball ricocheted about 30 feet into the air before being caught by catcher Mike Ohlman.
"Before he even caught it, people were signaling for the trainers to come out," said Nick Brzezinski, who works for the Blue Jays' Class A Lansing Lugnuts and was watching from along the first-base line. "You could tell the infielders were shaken by what they saw."
House fell to his stomach and was face down on the mound for nearly 20 minutes while the Tigers' medical staff attended to him. He was placed onto a stretcher and gave a thumbs-up to the crowd as he was placed into an ambulance and taken to the hospital.
Toronto manager John Gibbons said House was talking and had feeling in all of his extremities.
"I couldn't get near him," Gibbons said. "They were working on him. It's scary, you know. He was talking, he could feel everything, so, hopefully, that's a good sign."
The game was called with Toronto ahead 6-2, with a runner on first and one out in the ninth.
House signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays in the offseason. He played for Cleveland for parts of the past three seasons, compiling a record of 5-7 with a 4.44 ERA.
