Nationals reliever Hunter Strickland fell victim to a freak weight room accident that left him with a broken nose before Tuesday's game in Pittsburgh.
Strickland – who underwent X-rays before the game – was undeterred by the incident, letting manager Dave Martinez know he was still available to pitch.
"Yeah, that's probably a new one," he conceded. "Good for him that he at least got hurt doing something that was baseball related. It was in the care of our training staff and our weight staff. Just a freak accident that a cable on one of the machines broke, and it snapped and the weight whacked him in the nose."
"Ah, that's terrible," Eric Bickel said.
"We were wondering how that happened," said John-Paul Flaim.
"Yeah, that makes sense," added Bickel. "That's brutal."
"Yeah, he's a tough nut though," Rizzo said. "He went there and came back from the doctor with a patch on his nose and deemed himself ready to pitch. His attitude and makeup I think is what this bullpen is all about, so I think he'll be fine."
Strickland posted a personal status update to Instagram before the game. "Broke nose never killed anyone," he wrote. "We have a playoff push so let's keep it going @nationals This team is special! *side note: barbell=1 me=0"
