5/22 Red Sox nation worries about Byrd

Red Sox pitcher Alfredo Aceves tried to get in touch with Marlon Byrd after an errant fastball hit the Cubs outfielder in the face Saturday night. Byrd suffered multiple facial fractures.

“I tried,” Aceves said. “I called the doctors a few times and I never got any answer. I wanted to talk to him to see if he was OK. I was worried.”

Had he ever let one get that far away before?

“No,” Aceves said.

“It’s definitely scary,” Boston’s Kevin Youkilis said. “It didn’t sound good. I thought it hit him in the helmet until I heard today where it hit him. I mean, it’s definitely one of those things where it could be career ending. You never want to see that. So it was tough.

“Marlon’s a good guy and he’s played a lot of ball and probably never had that happen to him,” Youkilis said. “Hopefully, he can rebound and play and be OK.”

Said Red Sox outfielder Mike Cameron: “You just pray for him. That’s the biggest thing. His face will heal up, his fractures will heal up. He’s always been tough. It’ll impact him a little bit when he first comes back, but you just pray that everything stays in there together so he has baseball vision. Not only vision in itself, but baseball vision because that’s what the man does.”

– Carrie Muskat