San Diego Padres right-handed pitcher Randy Vásquez has been placed on the 15-day injured list following a frightening incident Thursday night at Dodger Stadium that left the team scrambling to determine the full extent of his condition. The move came after Vásquez was struck on the ankle by a Mookie Betts comebacker traveling at 99 miles per hour in the first inning of the Padres’ 12-7 loss to Los Angeles, then fainted while on his way to receive X-rays on the injury.
The situation unfolded after Vásquez completed three innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and one walk. Despite the ankle injury early in the game, he initially remained in the contest to throw a few practice pitches under observation from the Padres’ medical staff and coaching personnel. However, as the team prepared to conduct more thorough imaging of the ankle inside the stadium, Vásquez lost consciousness. A Padres trainer was positioned nearby and caught him before he hit the ground.
Vásquez was subsequently transported to a local Los Angeles hospital for precautionary testing. He regained consciousness before the trip and was in stable condition when he arrived. Manager Craig Stammen told reporters after the game that the incident caught everyone by surprise. “He was on his way to get an X-ray here in the stadium and fainted. So we took him to the emergency room just as a precaution. He’s conscious. He’s getting all his tests done. So we don’t really know about his ankle yet.”
On Friday morning, Stammen provided an update on Vásquez’s condition following his discharge from the hospital. The news was encouraging on multiple fronts. “X-rays were negative and all the tests came back pretty clean,” Stammen said. “That’s great news in what could have been a really scary situation and definitely caught everybody off-guard.” The cause of the fainting spell remained unclear, but the medical team’s comprehensive testing suggested nothing more severe was at play.
Despite the clean test results, the Padres announced Friday that Vásquez would be placed on the 15-day injured list, with the team listing him as having a bruised right ankle. The move comes as yet another blow to a San Diego pitching staff already reeling from injuries. Earlier in the week, reliever Jason Adam landed on the injured list with a right shoulder strain, and an All-Star reliever was also sent back to the injured list. The team was forced to recall reliever Alek Jacob from Triple-A El Paso to fill roster spots, while also reinstating catcher Luis Campusano from the injured list.
The situation underscores the mounting problems within the Padres’ rotation. Over the previous month, the team allowed the sixth-most runs in Major League Baseball while their rotation logged the third-fewest innings with a 5.27 earned run average. Vásquez himself had been struggling since the beginning of June, unable to escape the fourth inning in his past three starts and compiling an 8.37 ERA over that stretch with a 1-3 record.
Vásquez, 27, was one of the team’s bright spots early in the 2026 season after beginning with a hot start. But his performance had deteriorated significantly in recent weeks. For the full season, he carries a 4.71 ERA across 84 innings with 60 strikeouts and 27 walks.
The Padres also dealt with another injury concern in the same game when catcher Freddy Fermin was pulled from Thursday’s contest in the fifth inning after taking a foul tip off his face mask. Fermin was being evaluated for a concussion, and the team subsequently placed him on the 10-day injured list.
The Padres fell to 43-43 on the season with their loss to Los Angeles and are now facing a critical juncture. They have lost six consecutive games and sit three games back of the final wild-card spot in the National League. The team’s pitching challenges show no signs of letting up, and the additional absences will put further strain on their bullpen as they attempt to recover in the season’s second half.