Source: The Trentonian
While the Somerset Patriots were traveling back home, New York Yankees minor leaguer Brandon Lockridge stopped and ate cooked sushi and fried rice from a Chinese establishment, and a burger with fried egg from another restaurant. About 12 hours later — and in his sleep — all hell broke loose.
“One of those two places I got some type of bacterial food poisoning, and it kicked my butt for about a week,” Lockridge said. “I had to go to the doctor multiple times to get a new antibiotic, and it was bad.” So bad, in fact, that Lockridge lost about seven pounds in five days while on a liquid diet.
Instead of normally consuming 3,000 to 4,000 calories per day, the 25-year-old outfielder was suddenly in taking fewer than 500.
“I’m already a thin, not-much-fat-on-me guy, so every pound I feel,” the 6-foot-1, 185-pound frame, Lockridge said. “It was tough — if I ate anything solid it was immediately like, I was pain.” Luckily he tested negative for COVID-19, and after a few days he was able to eat solid foods again.
“They thought one type of antibiotic would work. It wasn’t reacting the way they wanted, so they switched the antibiotics later in the week and then within 24 to 48 hours I was feeling a lot better,” Lockridge said. “Then it was kind of just getting my strength back, getting back active after probably literally not leaving my room for six days.”
“A lot of times it’s easy to fall into the routine of sleep in, I’ll eat one meal, go to the field and now you’re only getting that amount of calories, where you’re supposed to get twice as much. Really it’s just making a conscious effort to eat. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches now, a lot of rice, pastas, anything I can to get as much nutrients as possible.”
Ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Yankees’ 17th-best minor league prospect, Lockridge is also aiming to get back on track from a production standpoint. His recent health scare unfortunately did throw his groove off, but Lockridge believes all of that is behind him and now is the time to turn his season around.
“The big thing is just showing up every day and keeping a level head and just pushing on,” Lockridge said. “A bad day doesn’t define you and a good day doesn’t define you. It’s just showing up and being the same guy every day and trying to help your team win.”