Less than a week after a line drive to the head sent Brandon McCarthy to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, the A's right-hander was discharged from California Pacific Medical Campus in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon.

The 29-year-old McCarthy was struck in the head by a liner by the Angels' Erick Aybar last Wednesday in a game in Oakland, suffering an epidural hemorrhage, a brain contusion and a skull fracture. He underwent a two-hour surgery to relieve pressure in his head, evacuate the hemorrhage and stabilize the fracture.

But McCarthy's conditioning had improved enough by Monday that he was able to walk down a hallway and up some steps using a handrail. A day later he was released, with the permission of Dr. Peter Weber, the neurologist who performed the surgery, as well as A's team physician Dr. Allan Pont.