PHOENIX -- Diamondbacks center fielder A.J. Pollock saw the Giancarlo Stanton video once, and that was enough. The footage almost made him ill.
Stanton, who is a top candidate for the NL MVP award along with Dodgers' left-hander Clayton Kershaw, suffered multiple facial fractures and damage to his teeth when he was struck in the face by a fastball from distraught Milwaukee right-hander Matt Fiers on Thursday. The ball appeared to hit Stanton near the left eye.
The Marlins released a statement Friday saying Stanton is not expected to need surgery. What the team did not say is that Stanton, who leads the NL with 37 home runs and 105 RBI, is likely to miss the rest of the season.
"I felt horrible for him," Pollock said.
"I tried to turn my head away. It's horrible."
Pollock understands the cost of playing baseball at the highest level. He missed the 2009 season after suffering a fractured right elbow while making a diving catch in spring training. He missed three months this season with a fractured right fourth metacarpal suffered when he was hit by a high-inside pitch by Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto on May 31. He was hit in the face by a pitch in the minors in 2012.
He also understands what is coming next -- the challenge.
Pollock has experienced it first-hand since returning from the disabled list two weeks ago.
"What's really, really unfortunate, they (opponents) are going to go through their scouting reports and the next time they see Stanton, or me, or whoever, they are going to say, 'He is going to be a little bit nervous, so we should come in on him,'" Pollock said Friday.
"I've seen a lot of pitches in (since returning). A ton. It's a mental thing you have to get over. I don't blame them. They are trying to make a living. They are trying to get outs. It takes a couple of games of seeing pitches consistently" to get over it.
"It's a ruthless business."
Pollock, 26, has played through it nicely. He hit a three-run home run against San Diego on Friday and threw out a runner attempting to stretch a single into a double, a continuation of what began as a breakout season before it was interrupted. He believes Stanton will do the same when he returns, although it might not be until 2015.
"He's a competitor. He'll be able to overcome that," Pollock said. "But they are not going to feel bad for him: 'Let's throw it away.' They'll probably try to test him to see if he will kind of bail."
Pollock saw the test in the way teams changed their pitching pattern when he came back.
"You face teams so much you kind of understand what they are trying to do," Pollock said. "You have guys who (pitch) mostly away. You are watching what they are doing to other guys. You watch what they do to you. It's different. They obviously are trying to get you out. If they are not throwing in there effectively ... they'll change.
"But their initial thing is to come right at you inside to get you a little bit nervous. Get some doubt to creep back in your mind. ... I have no problem with them doing that, but if they hit me again, I am not going to be happy about it."
The D-backs have had several incidents this season. They lost All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt for the season when he was hit in the left hand by a high-inside fastball from Pittsburgh reliever Ernesto Frieri in the ninth inning Aug. 1, breaking his fourth metacarpal. D-backs right-hander Randall Delgado hit Pittsburgh All-Star Andrew McCutchen in the back in the ninth inning on Aug. 2, and was ejected.
After Milwaukee right-hander Kyle Lohse hit Didi Gregorius and Chris Owings on June 17, D-backs right-hander Evan Marshall hit All-Star Ryan Braun in the right side and was ejected.
"I don't care if you hit me, but if you're coming where you are hitting Stanton or where your hands are, you're coming up-and-in like that, that's when I start to have a little problem," Pollock said.
"If they hit you in the legs and knee, even if I get hurt, I'm kind of like OK. Pitchers have to make a living, too. That's part of the game."
Jake Lamb was robbed of a third hit when San Diego shortstop Alexi Amarista reached behind himself to grab Lamb's hard grounder headed for left-center field with one out in the last of the ninth inning. Instead of runners at the corners, Amarista turned that into a force out at second base, basically saving the game. "That was a bullet," San Diego manager Bud Black said.
1 -- batter faced and one out recorded by left-hander Joe Paterson in his return to the major league.
* Pollock's aggressiveness resulted in a three-run home run in the fifth inning, one of his three hits. Pollock hit the first pitch he saw with runners on first and second base into the left-center field seats to bring the D-backs within 6-5, as close as they would come. "I just wanted to be a little aggressive on that first pitch," Pollock said. "He was trying to sneak the first one over then he was going with his other stuff outside the zone. I just wanted to get a good swing and get a runner in, and I got the ball in the air and got it out of the park." It was his seventh homer, his first since returning from a three-month stay on the disabled list Sept. 1.
* Vidal Nuno had given up only seven runs in his last four starts, but it was not his night Friday. He gave up six runs and eight hits in five innings, the most of each in his 12 starts with the D-backs. His ERA rose from 3.16 to 3.68. The D-backs, who had scored 19 runs when he was on the mound in his previous starts, scored five when he was the pitcher of record. "Trying to do too much at times and overthinking," Nuno said. "It is annoying that I got some run support today and that I blew it a little bit."
* The D-backs are on a season-long, seven-game losing streak and are 11-27 since Paul Goldschmidt was lost for the season with a fractured bone in his left hand.
Left-hander Andrew Chafin on Friday continued his postseason mastery for Triple-A Reno. He threw six scoreless innings in the Aces' 2-1 victory at Omaha to take a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-five Pacific Coast League championship series. Chafin threw a four-hit shutout in a victory over Las Vegas in the previous round.
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