D-Backs' McCarthy throws live batting practice

Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Brandon McCarthy threw live batting Monday for the first time since being struck in the head by a line drive last season.

McCarthy threw from behind a protective screen. While pitching for the Oakland A's on Sept. 5, he sustained a fractured skull and a contusion to his brain, when he took a liner off the bat of the Los Angeles Angels' Erick Aybar.

"It honestly is completely normal," McCarthy told reporters. "Anything you would have thought might have been there wasn't. I was more nervous about where my command was at, where my stuff was at."

Was he nervous?

"There's that thought of, 'Is something going to happen? The first time they swing, are you going to duck for cover and run for center?'" McCarthy said. "But it really wasn't there. I threw the first pitch, he didn't swing and it was, 'Oh, this is easy, let's go back and do this again.'"