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The game was held up for several minutes as the woman was
carried out of the ballpark on a stretcher and taken to Bayfront
Health medical center in St. Petersburg for treatment.
Steven Souza Jr's foul ball came through a narrow gap in
protective netting before striking the woman left of the Rays’
first-base dugout.
Souza climbed into the stands to check on her and said it had
been hard to re-focus after seeing the extent of her injury.
“That women's health is way more important than my results in
the game,” Souza told reporters after the 1-0 win.
“She was beat up pretty good. It looked like it caught her right
in the eye, which wasn't a good sight. It's just so
unfortunate."
The incident comes after Major League Baseball recommended late
last year that all 30 clubs provide netting or other protection
for fans from dugout to dugout as a safety precaution from foul
line drives.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said: “You feel for the lady and her
family.
"The last thing you want to do is come to a ballgame as a
player, as a coach or as a fan and see anybody get hurt.”
(Reporting by Ben Everill in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter
Rutherford)
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