David Fry recovering after sustaining broken nose, facial fractures after being hit in face by pitch

CLEVELAND (AP) — Cleveland Guardians designated hitter David Fry was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon and resting comfortably after he was hit in the face by a pitch from Detroit’s Tarik Skubal in the sixth inning of Cleveland’s 5-2 win over the Tigers, a victory that deadlocked the AL Central division race.

Manager Stephen Vogt visited Fry in the hospital Tuesday night and said Fry was in great spirits.

The Guardians said imaging and clinical examination showed Fry sustained multiple, minimally displaced, left-sided facial and nasal fractures. A timeline for recovery is six to eight weeks without the need for surgery.

Fry was placed on the 10-day injured list with outfielder Johnathan Rodríguez called up from Triple-A Columbus.

“He’s a tough kid and we’re just super thankful that he’s home resting,” Vogt said before Wednesday's game. “His family’s coming to town, so they’ll be back together as a family tonight and it’s going to be a little bit of a journey for him, right? I mean, we don’t know the extent. I mean, we know what’s going on, but it’s going to take some time to really see what’s going on and so he’s going to be out.”

Fry was transported from Lutheran Medical Center to the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus for further testing and observation before being discharged.

Fry squared around to try to bunt a 99 mph fastball from Skubal on Tuesday night and the pitch struck him in the nose and mouth area. As Fry collapsed in the batter’s box and immediately grabbed his bloodied face, a visibly shaken Skubal threw off his glove and cap as Vogt and trainers rushed onto the field.

Fry laid in the dirt for several minutes before being slowly helped to his feet. He gave a thumbs-up signal as he sat up and was driven off in a cart.

“I haven’t watched the replay. I don’t really care to,” Vogt said. “When you put yourself into a position to bunt correctly, you’re putting yourself in a vulnerable position. And he threw a fastball and it just happened to be right at him and there was nothing he could do.”

Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, paced around the infield as Fry was being assisted. Following the game, Skubal, who allowed just two hits through the first five innings, said seeing Fry in distress was difficult.

Skubal also visited Fry at the hospital after being brought over by Vogt. Skubal added that Fry texted back today and thanked him for coming to the hospital.

“Obviously nothing intentional, but still apologize about the situation and it’s one of those freak baseball plays,” Skubal said. “I mean, this is a game, but we’re all humans. ... That’s real life stuff, not baseball game stuff.”

Detroit manager A.J. Hinch also texted with Vogt throughout the night and was happy to hear that Fry is doing better. Hinch said he wasn't surprised to hear about Skubal's visit to the hospital.

“It’s very important for players to take care of players and us to be people,” Hinch said. “Tarik cares about people first. The competition is super important to everybody, but it does stop the moment when you know a guy is hurt like that.”

Freelance reporter Tom Withers contributed to this report.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

CORRECTION CORRECTS HITTING ON THE FACE BY PITCH - Cleveland Guardians' David Fry is taken off the field after being hit in the face by a pitch in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers in Cleveland, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

CORRECTION CORRECTS HITTING ON THE FACE BY PITCH - Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, left, attends to David Fry after Fry was hit in the face by a pitch in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers in Cleveland, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

CORRECTION CORRECTS HITTING ON THE FACE BY PITCH - Cleveland Guardians' David Fry is hit in the face by a pitch in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers in Cleveland, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

CORRECTION CORRECTS HITTING ON THE FACE BY PITCH - Cleveland Guardians' David Fry falls back after being hit in the face by a pitch in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers in Cleveland, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

CORRECTION CORRECTS HITTING ON THE FACE BY PITCH - Cleveland Guardians' David Fry falls back after being hit in the face by a pitch in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers in Cleveland, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

BEIJING (AP) — In China, the names of things are often either ornately poetic or jarringly direct. A new, wildly popular app among young Chinese people is definitively the latter.

It's called, simply, “Are You Dead?"

In a vast country whose young people are increasingly on the move, the new, one-button app — which has taken the country by digital storm this month — is essentially exactly what it says it is. People who live alone in far-off cities and may be at risk — or just perceived as such by friends or relatives — can push an outsized green circle on their phone screens and send proof of life over the network to a friend or loved one. The cost: 8 yuan (about $1.10).

It's simple and straightforward — essentially a 21st-century Chinese digital version of those American pendants with an alert button on them for senior citizens that gave birth to the famed TV commercial: “I've fallen, and I can't get up!”

Developed by three young people in their 20s, “Are You Dead?” became the most downloaded paid app on the Apple App Store in China last week, according to local media reports. It is also becoming a top download in places as diverse as Singapore and the Netherlands, Britain and India and the United States — in line with the developers' attitude that loneliness and safety aren't just Chinese issues.

“Every country has young people who move to big cities to chase their dreams,” Ian Lü, 29, one of the app's developers, said Thursday.

Lü, who worked and lived alone in the southern city of Shenzhen for five years, experienced such loneliness himself. He said the need for a frictionless check-in is especially strong among introverts. “It's unrealistic,” he said, “to message people every day just to tell them you're still alive.”

Against the backdrop of modern and increasingly frenetic Chinese life, the market for the app is understandable.

Traditionally, Chinese families have tended to live together or at least in close proximity across generations — something embedded deep in the nation's culture until recent years. That has changed in the last few decades with urbanization and rapid economic growth that have sent many Chinese to join what is effectively a diaspora within their own nation — and taken hundreds of millions far from parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Today, the country has more than 100 million households with only one person, according to an annual report from the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2024.

Consider Chen Xingyu, 32, who has lived on her own for years in Kunming, the capital of southern China’s Yunnan province. “It is new and funny. The name ’Are You Dead?' is very interesting,” Chen said.

Chen, a “lying flat” practitioner who has rejected the grueling, fast-paced career of many in her age group, would try the app but worries about data security. “Assuming many who want to try are women users, if information of such detail about users gets leaked, that’d be terrible,” she said.

Yuan Sangsang, a Shanghai designer, has been living on her own for a decade and describes herself as a “single cow and horse.” She's not hoping the app will save her life — only help her relatives in the event that she does, in fact, expire alone.

"I just don’t want to die with no dignity, like the body gets rotten and smelly before it is found," said Yuan, 38. “That would be unfair for the ones who have to deal with it.”

While such an app might at first seem best suited to elderly people — regardless of their smartphone literacy — all reports indicate that “Are You Dead?” is being snapped up by younger people as the wry equivalent of a social media check-in.

“Some netizens say that the 'Are you dead?' greeting feels like a carefree joke between close friends — both heartfelt and gives a sense of unguarded ease,” the business website Yicai, the Chinese Business Network, said in a commentary. ""It likely explains why so many young people unanimously like this app."

The commentary, by writer He Tao, went further in analyzing the cultural landscape. He wrote that the app's immediate success “serves as a darkly humorous social metaphor, reminding us to pay attention to the living conditions and inner world of contemporary young people. Those who downloaded it clearly need more than just a functional security measure; they crave a signal of being seen and understood.”

Death is a taboo subject in Chinese culture, and the word itself is shunned to the point where many buildings in China have no fourth floor because the word for “four” and the word for “death” sound the same — “si.” Lü acknowledged that the app's name sparked public pressure.

“Death is an issue every one of us has to face,” he said. “Only when you truly understand death do you start thinking about how long you can exist in this world, and how you want to realize the value of your life.”

A few days ago, though, the developers said on their official account on China’s Weibo social platform that they’d pivot to a new name. Their choice: the more cryptic “Demumu,” which they said they hoped could "serve more solo dwellers globally.”

Then, a twist: Late Wednesday, the app team posted on its Weibo account that workshopping the name Demumu didn’t turn out “as well as expected.” The app team is offering a reward for whoever offers a new name that will be picked this weekend. Lü said more than 10,000 people have weighed in.

The reward for the new moniker: $96 — or, in China, 666 yuan.

Fu Ting reported from Washington. AP researcher Shihuan Chen in Beijing contributed.

The app Are You Dead? is seen on a smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A woman looks at her smartphone in a cafe in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A woman looks at her smartphone outside a restaurant in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A man looks down near his smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A man reacts while holding his smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)