Young Child Hit In Face By Line Drive At Yankee Stadium, Taken To Hospital

A little girl was struck in the face by a 105 mph line drive on Wednesday afternoon during the New York Yankees’ home game against the Minnesota Twins.

Yankees fan hit in face

The toddler, who was watching the game with her grandparents, was sitting in the lower-level seats near the third-base dugout and suffered a bloodied face. She was transported to nearby NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.

The girl’s father and grandfather briefly spoke with reporters at the hospital on Wednesday night. When asked whether his daughter would require surgery, the father simply said: “It’s too early to tell.”

“She’s doing all right,” he added. “Just keep her in your thoughts.”

Players on both teams immediately fell to one knee and looked utterly horrified as play was temporarily suspended. Matt Holliday was reduced to tears.

Todd Frazier, who hit the drive in the fifth inning, seemed particularly concerned.

“It was terrible,” Frazier said. “I was shaken up a little bit. I hope she is all right. It is something that I wish never happened. It was tough. Tough to watch. Tough to be a part of, to be honest.”

Frazier added that he thought of his own two children, who are around the same age as the victim.

The protective netting at Yankee Stadium ends at the home plate side of each dugout. Following the game, several players stated they were in favor of more safeguards.

“We need it,” said Yankees All-Star Aaron Judge. 

Twins second baseman Brian Dozier fervently gave his personal opinion.

“Either, one, you don’t bring kids down there, or No. 2, every stadium needs to have nets,” Dozier said. “That’s it. I don’t care about the damn view of a fan or what. It’s all about safety.”

“I still have a knot in my stomach … I hope the kid’s OK. We need nets, or don’t put kids down there.”

The Yankees said in a statement that the girl was given first aid at the stadium before being taken to the hospital but declined to comment further, citing HIPAA laws that protect individuals’ privacy.

Major League Baseball pushed for the implementation of protective netting or screens in December 2015 so as to also shield the areas closest to home plate.

“It remains an ongoing discussion in the industry,” commissioner Rob Manfred said at Safeco Field before Wednesday night’s game between the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. “We gave some guidelines two years ago, and what we have done since then is that we have encouraged the individual clubs to engage in a localized process, look at their own stadiums — every stadium’s different — and to try to make a good decision about how far the netting should go in order to promote fan safety.

“If you look at what’s happened, there has been a continuous focus-forward movement in terms of increased netting in stadiums around the leagues, and I expect that process will continue this offseason.”

New York City Council member Rafael L. Espinal Jr. introduced legislation in May that city ballparks should extend their netting. The Mets have already begun making such changes to their netting at Citi Field.

“Our players were very disturbed,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Wednesday’s incident. “I was at Wrigley Field as a player and saw a young man get hit. And I think that he was in a coma for a day or two. And I was catching that game, and it really stuck with me.

“Does it happen more now? I don’t know. I do think the fans are closer to the home plate now, and that might need to be something that needs to be evaluated.”

The Yankees (85-67, 2nd in American League East) won the series finale 11-3, and next start a three-game series against the Blue Jays in Toronto on Friday at 7pm EST. The Bombers are still three games behind the division-leading Boston Red Sox (88-64), who completed a three-game sweep of the Orioles in Baltimore on Wednesday with a 9-0 victory.

The Red Sox — who have won seven of their last nine games — have now clinched a playoff berth for the second straight year. Left-hander Chris Sale struck out 13 to become the first AL pitcher in 18 years to reach the 300-strikeout mark in a single season.

The last AL pitcher to fan 300 batters in a season was Boston’s Pedro Martinez in 1999, when he set a club record with 313.

The Red Sox next begin a three-game series against the Reds in Cincinnati on Friday at 7:10 pm EST.

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 20: Todd Frazier #29 of the New York Yankees reacts after a child was hit by a foul ball off his bat in the fifth inning against the Minnesota Twins on September 20, 2017 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)