Tigers' Parker Meadows hospitalized by outfield collision while Twins complete 4-game sweep

Detroit Tigers center fielder Parker Meadows was carted off the field Thursday after colliding with left fielder Riley Greene while trying to track down a Josh Bell fly ball in the eighth inning of a 3-1 defeat to the Minnesota Twins.

Meadows was sent to a hospital, where he will be kept for overnight observation, according to The Associated Press.

While Greene made the catch, it came at a cost. Bell’s flyout shot toward left-center field. The 26-year-old Meadows, whom the Tigers selected in the second round of the 2018 MLB Draft, came soaring in for the putout, but Greene was already in position to make the catch in the alley.

Meadows bumped heads with Greene. Both of their caps went flying as they hit the ground. Greene braced the fall with his right knee and got right back up, whereas Meadows dropped like a rag doll. He laid on his back with his arms up and blood on his face.

Eventually, Meadows returned to his feet, albeit with assistance from the Tigers’ training staff and the medical personnel at Target Field in Minnesota, per The Athletic. Then he got on a cart that took him off the diamond.

After the game, according to The Athletic, Meadows was taken on a stretcher to a local hospital. He was reportedly fully conscious and has his left arm in a sling.

“It’s a terrible feeling. I still feel terrible,” Greene said postgame, per the AP. “He hit my head. I don’t know where I hit him, to be honest, but I just really hope he’s OK.”

Greene and Meadows overlapped in the Tigers’ farm system while on their respective journeys to the bigs and are close. Meadows is in his fourth MLB season after making his major-league debut in 2023.

Meadows has started 11 of Detroit’s 13 games this season in center field. He’s hit a pair of extra-base hits and tallied two RBI while batting .250.

“That was an ugly, scary one, and there's a lot of concern for him,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said of the collision, per MLB.com. “When we got out there, it looked like he had bit his lip or inside his mouth, so there was some blood, and he was pretty out of it. …

“Those are scary collisions. You don't know what you're going to get when you get there. Obviously we're going to get him checked out for everything, but this one worries me.”

Detroit has dropped nine of its last 11 games, including five in a row, but the status of its center fielder is top of mind.