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Detroit Tigers ace asks MLB for more safeguards after fan drilled by ball

"If today doesn't get nets [put] up, what is it going to take?" Tigers third baseman Nick Castellanos said.

By Doug G. Ware

DETROIT, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Detroit Tigers ace pitcher Justin Verlander is calling on Major League Baseball to better protect fans, after a woman was hurt by a foul ball hit into the stands Friday evening.

During the game's eighth inning Friday, a woman sitting behind the Tigers dugout was struck by a ball fouled off the bat of outfielder Anthony Vose. She was hospitalized and remains under observation, ESPN reported.

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Verlander, who won the American League Cy Young Award in 2011, asked MLB for additional protection at Detroit's Comerica Park -- specifically, to extend the netting that separates the field from many of the fans behind home plate.

"More protective measures need to be put in place in all ball parks!" he tweeted Friday night. "Players are sick of seeing injuries that could easily be avoided!"

"I hope the fan tonight is okay!" he added. "MLB should make changes before it's too late."

Although fan injury in baseball is rare, Verlander believes the threat of such is present enough to warrant the added safeguards.

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"It seems like something happens once a game, where a ball just misses a fan and, inevitably, it's always small kids or women, you know," he said. "It's just something that needs to be looked at, and hopefully it doesn't get to the point where something really serious happens before there's an adjustment made."

"Nets need to go up all around baseball, without a doubt," Tigers third baseman Nick Castellanos said. "I remember in West Michigan, on field trip days, I've seen kids get hit. I've seen multiple fans get hit.

"If today doesn't get nets up, what is it going to take?"

Friday's was the second occurrence this season of a fan being hospitalized after being struck by an object from the field.

In June, a woman was nearly killed at Boston's Fenway Park when she was struck in the face by a broken bat -- which had come out of the batter's hands during his swing.

The woman survived and was ultimately released from the hospital.

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