Source: USA TODAY

Stunningly slow starts by three of baseball’s preseason favorites have led to inevitable speculation about managers’ futures and the wisdom of the front offices’ acquisitions.

But there’s really only one pertinent question for the Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays: Is it already too late?

The Dodgers, at least, will be getting help. Marquee pitching acquisition Zack Greinke — one of nine Dodgers on the disabled list — could return as soon as Wednesday from a collarbone injury. Still, manager Don Mattingly couldn’t help but note a recent game that broke an eight-game losing streak was “a game you feel like you have to win.”

That’s reality for the last-place Dodgers (15-21), seven games behind the National League West-leading San Francisco Giants and 5½ games out of a wild-card spot.

Catching four teams won’t be easy, and the Dodgers have the majors’ worst intra-division mark (5-16).

The challenges facing the Angels and Blue Jays are tougher.

The 14-23 Angels are 10 games behind in the American League West. Texas is the division’s only team with a winning record. But if the Rangers merely go 63-62 the rest of the year, they would win 87 and force the Angels to go 73-52 to catch them. “We need to get our bullpen guys healthy,” Angels general manager Jerry DiPoto says, “and that will help.”

But there’s more urgency than that, especially for a team with sluggers Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton posting career lows in batting average, on-base and slugging percentage.

The 87 wins is a bench mark for anyone thinking playoffs. The Blue Jays must go 72-51 to get there, the Dodgers 72-54.

Over the last 10 years — even if baseball had been using the two wild-card system instituted last season — only once (2006 in the NL) could a team have earned a wild-card slot with less than 87 wins. The magic number’s been as high as 91, in 2004.

Playing catch-up in the AL East will be tough for Toronto. The Blue Jays are 8-15 against division rivals, and their 23 division games are the most by any AL East team. Toronto will have played 33 of its 76 division games by Memorial Day.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

Like many major leaguers, Detroit Tigers reliever Darin Downs was concerned after a line drive struck Toronto Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ in the head Tuesday night, a blow that had Happ admittedly feeling lucky he only suffered a cut and minor fracture near his ear.

Downs, however, has been through what Happ is experiencing – and then some. He spent nine days in a truly life-threatening situation in an Alabama hospital after a 2009 incident when a ball struck him in a minor league game and he suffered a fractured skull and internal bleeding.

And, while his perspective varies from the typical major leaguer, his sentiments about increased protection for pitchers do not.

“Nobody’s going to wear one unless it feels comfortable,” Downs says of possible safety improvements, especially hat liners made out of Kevlar or similar substances. “I’d totally wear one if something felt comfortable and didn’t hamper me from doing my job.”

That product hasn’t been found yet, though Major League Baseball and the players’ union continue to explore possibilities. Until then, danger from batted balls will be, as Phillies left-hander Cliff Lee puts it, “part of the gig.”

“As far as a push from the players, no,” Michael Weiner, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, told USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday. “If someone could come up with a product that would work, guys would in favor of it.”

“A company sent me two different hats this offseason,” Downs says. “They didn’t really sit right on my head. Everybody’s head is different, so you’d have to custom fit the piece, then custom fit the hat with the insert because now the hat would sit higher.”

Downs points out that a cap liner wouldn’t have helped Happ because he was struck near the ear. Protection beyond the current cap shape surely would meet with even more resistance.

“If anything’s over my head or over my face or anything like that, I think it would be a little bit too much of a distraction,” says San Francisco Giants pitcher George Kontos, a teammate of Happ at Northwestern who traded text messages with Happ after the incident.

Brandon McCarthy of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who suffered a fractured skull when hit be a line drive last September, echoes the comfort issue, but says it’s a matter of when – not if – more protection is coming.

“We’ve put things on the moon before,” he says. “So I feel like we could create some sort of a device. It’s going to be a money-maker whatever it is. You can sell it to youth leagues and people will wear it all the way through.”

Happ, meeting with reporters Wednesday, says he hasn’t given increased protection much thought. But even teammates sobered by witnessing the incident accept it as part of playing the game.

“It’s just something you accept when you take the mound,” says Toronto pitcher R.A. Dickey, who said he spent time after the game praying with his wife for Happ’s recovery. “It’s such a rare occurrence.”

Happ says he’s likely to remain in Florida for a few days as a precaution in case concussion symptoms would appear. His biggest issue, he says, is a sore knee that resulted from falling after getting hit. He used crutches Wednesday.

Before meeting with reporters, he and Jennings spoke for the first time.

“It’s a scary thing for him, too,” Happ says. “I appreciated him coming over.”

“It’s something you just don’t want to see, a guy laying out there like that,” says Jennings, who was obviously relieved to meet with Happ.

“I could breathe a little bit,” Jennings says.

Until next time.

Contributing: Jorge L. Ortiz in San Francisco, Greg Auman in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ will be discharged from the hospital Wedneday afternoon, less than 24 hours after he was struck in the head by a line drive.

The Blue Jays released a statement Wednesday morning that Happ suffered a laceration and head contusion when he was struck by a Desmond Jennings line drive Tuesday night.

“He was responsive and doing well after suffering a head contusion and a laceration to his left ear,” the Blue Jays said in a statement. “The Blue Jays anticipate that he will be discharged later today after further testing. The club will provide and update later today should any further information become available.”

Since the statement, Happ was released from the hospital with a bandage on his head and a brace on his right knee.

Happ was carried off on a stretcher Tuesday night after a line drive ricocheted off his head and into foul territory in short right field at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Happ was on the ground for 10 minutes but was conscious and weakly waved to the crowd as he left.

Jennings’ drive appeared to hit the left side of Happ’s head and ended up being a two-run triple as some of Happ’s teammates chased the ball and other rushed to the mound.

Happ’s head and neck were immobilized by medical personnel before he was wheeled off the field and taken to Bayfront Medical Center, where he was alert and undergoing tests, according to the Associated Press.

Said R.A. Dickey: “I think the last indication was that he was alert and feeling better and had gone for a CT scan. That’s the last I heard.

“It’s devastating. … I could barely watch it. You just don’t know what to think, really. It paralyzes you a little bit. And when it sounds like two bats, when you hear the sound off the bat and it sounds like it hits another bat, it’s scary. It’s really, really scary. I just started praying in the spot. That’s all I knew to do.”

Jennings’ hit gave Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead but Toronto rallied to win 6-4.

Jennings was clearly shaken by the incident.

Said Rays manager Joe Maddon: “That was a real scary moment. That was awful. I hope that he’s well.”

Happ, 30, is in his seventh season in the majors and his first full year with Toronto, who acquired him from Houston in a trade last July. The Philadelphia Phillies took Happ in the third round of the 2004 draft and he debuted with them in 2007. He entered Tuesday’s game with a 37-37 career record and was 2-2 this year with a 3.98 earned run average.

Last season, Brandon McCarthy, then with the Oakland Athletics, was hit by a liner that fractured his skull. He underwent emergency brain surgery raising questions about player safety.

“We are actively meeting with a number of companies that are attempting to develop a product, and have reviewed test results for several products,” MLB spokesman Pat Courtney told the AP in an email. “Some of the products are promising. No company has yet developed a product that has satisfied the testing criteria.”

The incident occurred 56 years to the day after one of baseball’s most significant pitcher injuries, when young star Herb Score of the Cleveland Indians was struck by a line drive hit by Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees, breaking Score’s facial bones and injuring his eye.

McDougald ran to the mound rather than first base after the ball hit Score, who had set a major league rookie strikeout record with 245 in 1955. Score recovered but was never again nearly as effective, though he blamed his problems on a subsequent arm injury.

Contributing: AP reports

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.