Fan hit in face by line drive during Braves-Brewers game
A fan was injured when she was hit in the face by a line drive during Monday’s game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Atlanta Braves.
During the top of the ninth inning, Braves outfielder Eury Perez hit a foul ball which landed about seven rows above Milwaukee’s dugout on the first-base side, striking the woman.
The game was delayed for nine minutes as medical personnel attended to the woman. Atlanta went on to win the game 5-3, snapping Milwaukee's eight-game winning streak.
"It's just awful," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said to MLB.com. "For everybody in [the clubhouse], our prayers go out to her. You hate to see it. You hope she's able to recover and enjoy a game again."
The incident is the second in a month where a fan was injured while sitting in the stands. A 44-year old woman, Tonya Carpenter, was hit in the head when Oakland Athletics third baseman Brett Lawrie’s broken bat flew into the stands at Fenway Park on June 5 during a game against the Boston Red Sox.
Carpenter spent several days in a local hospital before she was transferred to rehabilitation center and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he planned to re-evaluate fan safety at all stadiums.
Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who was on first base when Perez’s line drive hit the fan, said he wishes there was a net to protect fans who don’t have a chance to react when foul balls are hit into the stands.
"When a ball is hit that hard into a crowded area, chances are somebody is going to get hit," Simmons said. "You hope nobody gets hit and if somebody gets hit, you hope it's in the arm or only so much damage is done. But when somebody gets hit in the face, it's almost always going to end up bad."
In May 2014, in a game between the same two teams in Atlanta, a young boy was in the head by a foul ball off the bat of Carlos Gomez.
- Scooby Axson
