Billy Wagner Can Relate to Latest Pitchers Hit by Liners

NEW YORK -- Twice in the past week, a pitcher has been hit by a line drive back at him. And Billy Wagner's advice to Hiroki Kuroda of the Dodgers and Darin Downs, a Rays farmhand: You will never completely get over it.

In July 1998, Wagner took a liner off the left side of his head -- while he was on the same mound where Kuroda was felled 11 years later.

"You just have to kind of go straight through and say, 'Hey, I'm going to pitch through it, I'm not going to worry about it,'" Wagner told FanHouse on Tuesday. "But you do have that thought in the back of your mind. I still walk out there, I mean, in a minor-league (rehabilitation) game, you sit there and they call fastball away or something like that, you go, 'Awww.' You think about getting that ball coming back at you. There's no doubt."

Downs, a 24-year-old lefty, was hit Monday night while pitching for Double-A Montgomery (Ala.). The Rays said Tuesday he was still hospitalized and in serious but stable condition.

Kuroda was struck Saturday by a liner from Arizona's Rusty Ryal at the Diamondbacks' Chase Field and is expected to go on the disabled list.

"There's definitely flashbacks when you see that because that's exactly where I got hit," Wagner said.

Kelly Stinnett of the Diamondbacks hit the line drive off Wagner's head at what was then Bank One Ballpark.

"The next morning, I wanted to go home," Wagner recalled. "[The doctor said,] 'The only way you're going home is if you can get out of that wheelchair, walk to me and walk back.' And I got up -- you try to focus on one thing and your eyes are going [wild] -- and I remember walking, and I got there, and I turned around, and walked back and sat down -- and was miserable.

"The vertigo was the worst. Man, I didn't have headaches. I just couldn't walk. My balance was off. And every time you'd go to eat, you'd throw up."

When Wagner finally did fly back to Houston, he remembered being so disoriented coming off the plane that he had to close his eyes, put his hands on the shoulders of teammate Mike Magnante and blindly follow Magnante through the airport.

Wagner was able to return in less than four weeks.

He is currently recovering from the major elbow surgery he underwent last Sept. 10 and is on track to be activated from the Mets' disabled list within the next few days.