The impact of the moment hit Salvador Perez instantly, as he saw Aroldis Chapman fall to the ground after being struck by Perez's line drive Wednesday night. Perez raised his hands to his hands to his head: Oh, no.
Chapman suffered fractures above his left eye and nose, and was taken away on a cart. After a 12-minute delay, the umpires and teams decided to end the game. Perez and others on the field were horrified by what happened to Chapman, as Andy McCullough writes. More from his story:
Chapman remained down for eight minutes. Players kneeled in both dugouts. Some bowed their heads. Other crossed themselves.
After a wait that felt interminable, medical personnel rolled Chapman rolled onto a backboard and loaded him into a cart. The ambulance waited outside the park.
During the intervening minutes, Yost met with Price and the umpiring crew. There was no sense in continuing, they decided.
"It was really a mutual agreement," crew chief Chris Guccione said. "Players were rattled. The staff was rattled. The umpires were rattled. We figured it was best, along with both teams in agreement that the game should end."
As he left the field, Perez appeared to be weeping. Eric Hosmer hugged him as he entered the dugout. Perez declined to speak with reporters. He left the clubhouse quickly.
Last June, Hosmer played a similar role in another frightening incident. He struck Rays pitcher Alex Cobb in the head with a liner at Tropicana Field. Cobb suffered a concussion, but eventually returned later in the season.
Because it was the regular season, that game continued. Yost was relieved to end Wednesday's game. He could not foresee a productive ending to the evening, not with both sides so upset.
"I didn't want to go on," he said. "My players didn't want to go on. They didn't want to go on."
The most important thing now is that Chapman has apparently escaped a life-threatening injury.