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Blue Jays Outfielder Slammed Into Wall So Hard He Left a Smudge

Don't see that every day.

Kyle Koster

Alan Roden left his mark in Philadelphia
Alan Roden left his mark in Philadelphia / MLB on X
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The Toronto Blue Jays dropped a game to the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday, 11-4. Centerfielder Alan Roden played hard through the final whistle, though, and delighted his teammates with his effort and prop comedy. Already down 6-2 in the fifth inning, Roden tracked down a drive to deep left by Nick Castellanos right before colliding with the fence at a good rate of speed.

Roden crumpled to the warning track after securing the ball and Toronto's medical staff came out to check on him. Once it became clear that he was fine, teammate Ernie Celement, who had come all the way from the infield to check on his teammate, noticed something spectacular on the fence where Roden had made impact and tried to cheer him up by pointing out that there was a smudge of eye black left as evidence.

We've all been there. Your friend just sustained a slight injury and there you are with an unmistakable grin because something about it just hit you the right way. But that's fun. The way Clement hustled over to show his friend what had him smiling felt so pure.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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