Jays look into dugout netting at the dome

Two teams have committed to adding more protection from line-drive foul balls

The shot heard around the baseball world, a sobering moment for the industry, came on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium when a young girl was hit by a line drive off the bat of Todd Frazier and the repercussions will continue to be debated and acted upon into the 2018 season and beyond.

In the fifth inning of a game against the Twins, Frazier ripped a hard line drive foul over third base. The ball rocketed into the seats and caught a toddler in the area of the left eye. The emotional reaction from both teams was immediate with the action halted until the girl had been taken to hospital.

The Jays for their part were not talking about what they might do at the Rogers Centre, other than to say they are taking the facts into consideration. All they could say is that it is something they are going to look into extensively in the off-season and that there is more research to be done.

Current safety regulations, adopted for all of major-league baseball in time for the 2016 season, mandate that netting be in place from dugout to dugout, but anything more than that was left up to individual clubs.

The Reds and the Padres have already committed to adding the safety netting to the far ends of each dugout.

The Blue Jays are playing their final three-game series of the year against the Yankees and will not make any additions until their own studies are completed. It should be noted the foul ball off the bat of Frazier was farther down the line and would not have been stopped by any additional netting behind the dugouts.