Aug 31, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Austin Hays (9) hits a double during the second inning against the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Austin Hays' kidney infection was certainly unusual. That was before we knew it was caused by a bacterial infection of E. coli.
Hays was a guest Thursday on Power Alley, a show hosted by Jim Duquette and Mike Ferrin on MLB Network Radio and told the hosts that his kidney infection came from something he ate.
Austin Hays tells @MLBNetworkRadio that his Kidney Infection was caused by E. coli and it “should just be a one-time freakish thing.” pic.twitter.com/sH8kZTQUqZ
Here's a transcription if you're somewhere you can't listen:
"This was... the infection came from E coli. So, it was traced back to something that I would have eaten. So, once you, once you get it in your system. It can, you know, move around - the virus can. So, instead of getting food poisoning or, you know, getting a fever and vomiting, it made its way to the kidney. So, it wasn't anything internal that was going on. It wasn't anything wrong with my body. I had a bunch of ultrasounds done and a bunch of tests, and I had everything checked and, like, everything's aligned the way it's supposed to be, my body works correctly. So this was just, you know, like, bacteria that most likely I got from something that I had eaten, and it just took a long time for us to be able to tell that I had something inside, you know. But moving forward, now that we got all my tests done and my blood work came back, and my white blood cell count was back to normal, and my inflammation numbers were back down, it should just be a one-time freakish thing, you know, all my kidney function is good. It's been good, you know in baseball, they do a lot of checks every year at the start of the season, and I've been really healthy and had good numbers. All my prior years leading up to this just really random event."
That's a scarier infection than maybe anyone realized. According to the Cleveland Clinic this type of infection has the possibility of some long-term effects if it's not caught early and eradicated.
Hays chatted with On Pattison a few weeks ago about his illness, and while he talked about what he was experiencing, he didn't express the part about E. coli.
He has been back in the Phillies lineup since Tuesday. He is in the lineup again Friday, batting ninth and playing left field, as the Phillies open their final regular season series against the Washington Nationals before the playoffs begin a week from Saturday.
The Phillies won't know who their opponent is until Wednesday at the earliest and possibly even Thursday. The Phillies have earned a bye and are still battling the Los Angeles Dodgers for the No. 1 overall seed. The Phillies trail the Dodgers by one game but hold the tiebreaker over Los Angeles as a result of winning the season series between the two teams.
