After a young girl was struck and injured by a line drive at Yankee Stadium Wednesday, the Seattle Mariners on Thursday said they'll be expanding the protective netting at Safeco Field beyond home plate to protect more fans down the baselines.
"This is an issue that we've been concerned about for some time," Mariners president Kevin Mather said in a released statement. "We still have some details to work out, but the bottom line is expanded netting at Safeco Field is going to happen."
"We need to figure out the engineering, the specifics of the material and who we're going to work with to get the project accomplished. Once we've got all those decisions made, then we're going to have a very good idea," said Rebecca Hale, spokesperson for the Mariners.
While expansion options are still being considered, the netting likely will extend to the end of the dugouts.
The changes could start as early as next season. The Mariners close out the current home season Sunday.
Just six weeks after the Yankees said they would "seriously explore" extending the netting before the 2018 season following a similar incident, a girl was struck by a 105 mph foul ball off the bat of Todd Frazier in the bottom of the fifth inning.
The game against the Minnesota Twins was delayed for about 4 minutes while she was attended to and then carried from the seats as players from both teams reacted. Frazier took a knee as she was carried away.
