Fan injured after ball slips through netting at Tropicana Field

Despite Major League Baseball's best efforts to improve fan safety, another fan was injured during Friday's White Sox-Rays game at Tropicana Field.

The incident occurred during the seventh inning when Tampa Bay's Steven Souza Jr. hit a line-drive foul ball that slipped through the protective netting by the Rays on-deck circle.

According to reports from the scene, the woman struck was seated in the second row. It was not initially clear where the fan was hit, though photos later confirmed she was hit on the left side of her face or head. Witnesses also report a loud impact.

The fan was tended to for several minutes at her seat before being removed on a stretcher. While receiving treatment from medics, Souza stopped by to check on her condition and offer well wishes.

Souza was understandably shook, but finished his at-bat. He ended up striking out to end the inning. The Rays went on to lose the game 1-0, but thoughts throughout the final inning remained on the injured fan.

MLB has gone out of its way in recent months to address the fan safety issue. At the Winter Meetings in December, they formally recommended that teams extend their protective netting between the dugouts for any field-level seats within 70 feet of home plate. In some instances, we've even seen teams go from the ends of both dugouts.

As we learned again on Friday night, even the best laid plans are susceptible to flaws or break downs that prevent the desire results. In fact, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times investigated how unlikely the odds were that something like this would happen.

Where there's an opening, there's always a chance. And that's something MLB will probably look to eliminate next.

The condition of the fan injured on Friday is not currently known, but we will provide updates as they become available.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813