Angels’ Matt Shoemaker to face Kyle Seager for first time since taking comebacker off head

When Seattle Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager steps into the batter’s box to face Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker on Sunday, both men are likely to flash back to that fateful day last September, when Seager hit a 105-mph line drive off the right side of Shoemaker’s head.

For Seager, the memories of that horrific collision between baseball and skull were stirred at the mere mention of Shoemaker before the Angels’ home opener Friday night.

“I had flashbacks when they announced his name before the game,” Seager said late Friday night. “It’s a scary thing. It’s pretty amazing that he’s back out there on the mound again.”

Seager thought he may have ended Shoemaker’s career — or worse — when his wicked line drive struck the right-hander in Seattle’s Safeco Field on Sept. 4.

Blood started shooting from Shoemaker’s nose as the pitcher fell to the ground. As athletic trainers tended to Shoemaker, Seager was visibly shaken as he paced nervously around first base.

Shoemaker suffered a small skull fracture and a hematoma. He underwent emergency surgery later that night to stop the bleeding that threatened his life.

He spent five days in the hospital before returning home to start a lengthy rehabilitation process, his season ending with a 9-13 record and 3.88 earned-run average in 27 starts.

Six months later, in the finale of a three-game series in Angel Stadium, Shoemaker and Seager will square off again, a reunion that neither believes will be awkward or uncomfortable.

“You know, I’m just happy for him that he’s back out on the mound,” Seager said, when asked if it would be strange to face Shoemaker again. “That was a very scary situation.”

Shoemaker is buoyed by the fact that he got through five spring-training starts and his first regular-season start in Oakland on Tuesday night without incident.

“I don’t think it will be weird at all,” Shoemaker said, “because I’ve gotten through so many steps to get to this point.”

Hitting a line drive off a pitcher’s head can be traumatic for the batter too. When former Angels shortstop Erick Aybar’s line drive to the head of A’s pitcher Brandon McCarthy sent the right-hander to the hospital with an epidural hemorrhage, brain contusion and skull fracture in September 2012, Aybar was so worried about McCarthy he had trouble focusing in games for a week or so.

“It affects you, but people should be focused on Matt, not me,” Seager said. “Anything I felt is a distant, distant second to anything he was going through. What he was going through was far, far worse.”

Seager, the older brother of Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager, spoke by phone and exchanged text messages with Shoemaker, not only in the immediate aftermath of the incident but several times throughout the winter.

“He seems like a good dude,” Seager said. “You compete against somebody, you don’t know them personally, you don’t know anything about them, their family situation. You know that he’s a starting pitcher, and you know what his pitch arsenal is.

“Something like this happens, you certainly take a step back. I learned more about him and his family. … We’re competing against each other. Ultimately, it’s our job, but this is a game. You’re not out there trying to hurt anybody. I certainly didn’t mean to do it. No one wishes that on anybody.”

Shoemaker, who allowed two runs and four hits in five innings, striking out four and walking three in a 7-6 win over the A’s on Tuesday night, appreciated Seager’s concern.

“I knew of him, we played against each other in the minors leagues. But it just shows you what kind of guy he is,” Shoemaker said. “He’s a stand-up guy, a quality guy. He reached out to me a lot in the off-season. It was cool.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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