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Dodgers will take steps to increase fan safety next season

Baseball fans react as a young girl is carried out of the seating area after being hit by a line drive during the fifth inning of a game between the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins on Sept. 20.
(Bill Kostroun / Associated Press)
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With fan safety in focus after a young girl was seriously injured by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium last week, the Dodgers are likely to modify the protective netting at Dodger Stadium for next season.

“We will be doing something,” Dodgers president Stan Kasten said Tuesday. “We’ll have more to say after the season.”

The protective netting at Dodger Stadium extends to the near end of each dugout, but the cables supporting the netting extend to each foul pole. Major league teams have focused on extending protection to the seats behind the dugouts; Japanese teams extend the netting to the foul poles.

Commissioner Rob Manfred has declined to mandate the extension of protective netting beyond the seats behind home plate, and is quietly encouraging teams to make that decision on their own. Within 24 hours of last week’s incident, the Cincinnati Reds, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners all announced plans to extend netting next season.

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Puig back in play

Yasiel Puig was back in the lineup Tuesday. Manager Dave Roberts, who has likened his relationship with the enigmatic outfielder to raising a son, said the two have “that respect and that love” for one another.

“My son is not grounded,” Roberts said. “He’s allowed to leave his room and get on the field and play with his friends.”

Roberts benched Puig in the previous two games, first for what the manager called “bad baseball” on an ill-timed stolen-base attempt on which Puig did not slide, then for reporting late. Roberts had indicated the infractions were not the only ones for Puig this season .

Puig declined to comment.

Urias nods

At the start of the season, the Dodgers projected Julio Urias as part of a possible playoff rotation. Urias was on hand for his bobblehead night Tuesday, but he has not pitched since he underwent shoulder surgery three months ago.

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In 2016, the Dodgers alternated him as a starter and reliever in trying to limit his innings and protect his arm, to positive results: 5-2 with a 3.39 earned run average. Urias, who was 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA in five starts this season, said he would not ask the Dodgers to use him strictly as a starter upon his return.

“They will have a plan. They always have a plan,” Urias said through an interpreter. “I trust them like I’ve always trusted them.”

Urias, 21, said he was told his rehabilitation would take about 14 months. That timetable could allow Urias to rejoin the Dodgers when rosters expand next September.

Short hops

With the Dodgers’ home finale Wednesday, they will have sold more than 3.7 million tickets this season. They have led the majors in attendance in each of the five full years under Guggenheim Baseball ownership, selling between 3.7 million and 3.8 million tickets each year. … Roberts said Clayton Kershaw would make an “abbreviated” start Saturday at Colorado, his tuneup for Game 1 of the playoffs. Yu Darvish could start Sunday, tuning up for a presumed Game 2 start, but Roberts left open the possibility that Darvish might skip that outing because the Dodgers could face the Rockies in the division series. Darvish has faced the Rockies just once in his career, on Sept. 8, and never has pitched at Coors Field.

bill.shaikin@latimes.com

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Twitter: @BillShaikin

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