Apr 12, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; Los Angeles Angels center fielder Jo Adell (7) places a fire helmet on left fielder Taylor Ward (3) after Ward hits a home run during the fifth inning against the Houston Astros at Daikin Park. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Angels Outfielder Calls Out Astros After Taylor Ward Injury

Originally posted on Los Angeles Angels on SI
By Aaron Coloma | Last updated Sep 1, 2025 4:39 PM ET

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Jo Adell called out the Houston Astros after Taylor Ward went down with an injury on Sunday after running into a metal section on the outfield wall.

In the bottom of the seventh inning on Sunday, Ward ranged to his left to field a fly ball and ran into the out-of-town scoreboard beneath the Crawford boxes in left field face first. Ward had to be carted off the field with towels over his face, and received stitches after the game.

Luckily, Ward avoided serious injury.

“He’s doing what he’s supposed to do,” Adell said. “He’s being aggressive on a play. At the bottom line, and I’ve talked about this before, but there should be no out-of-town metal scoreboard anywhere on the baseball field. It’s the big leagues. This (expletive) is ridiculous. A guy goes back to make a play, and he’s got to worry about a metal fence. That’s crazy. So that’s my honest opinion about it. He did everything he could to make a play, and he gets beat up by something that’s beyond controllable.

“I pulled an oblique on it. I hit my head. I missed a month and a half of the season. At what point is it just not acceptable anymore? I don’t know. In my opinion.”

Adell has also had a run in with the same wall, suffering an injury in Sept. 2021 after colliding with the wall. He missed the remainder of the season after going down Sept. 15, 2021.

Ward also spoke about the safety of the wall, and called for something to change for the "next guy" to avoid future injuries.

“It would be nice if I hit padding, for sure,” Ward said. “But you’ve also got to know where the wall is too, so there’s both sides of it. But it would be nice if they did something to it, just for the next guy. And hopefully I’m not the next guy. I just hope that they do something about it, just to prevent stuff like this.”

Ward was absent from the starting lineup in the Angels' series finale against the Astros on Monday, but was listed on the bench. He stated he will likely just need a few rest days before returning.