NEW YORK - When first hit by a pitch from Colorado's Chad Bettis, Yankees slugger Luke Voit was scared. He remembered when Giancarlo Stanton's jaw was broken by Milwaukee's Mike Fiers five years ago.
"I thought broken jaw. My teeth were going to be all scattered everywhere," Voit said Sunday. "I grabbed my face. So I was like, 'Oh, oh.' But then, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Just a scary thing."
Voit was back in the New York Yankees' lineup at first base for Sunday's 8-4 loss to Colorado.
Voit said his jaw was "super sore" when he awoke, but after icing there was only a little swelling. He said it felt as if he had been punched, and there was a slight cut on his chin. Concussion tests were negative.
Part of the force of the 91 mph pitch was absorbed when the ball grazed Voit's shoulder. He also was able to turn his face slightly.
"I dodged a bullet, got lucky," said Voit, who planned to try a protective chin strap on his helmet before the game.
He went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts and allowed Tony Wolters' sacrifice to bounce off his glove, leading to three unearned runs in a four-run third. Voit batted with a faceguard attached to his helmet.
"It's good. I just have to get used to it," he said. "I tried two different ones out before the game, and one's a little higher than the other one."
Voit is hitting .194 (6-for-31) since returning from nearly two weeks on the injured list caused by an abdominal strain, dropping his season average to .272 with 18 homers and 52 RBI.
"Right now I feel like I'm underneath it and around stuff. Just got to get my timing back," he said. "I'm swinging at pitches I usually don't. I'm making weak contact, and I'm giving them easy outs."
Voit maintained the faceguard was not a distraction.
"After maybe three or four days, I'll see how it feels," he said. "I do get pitched up and in a lot, and it could happen again, Hopefully, it won't, but you never know, so maybe if I get comfortable with it, I won't even notice."