Braves players visit boy injured by foul ball

ATLANTA — In the moments after a young Braves fan was struck in the head by a foul ball Tuesday night, players on the field with both the Braves and Brewers were stunned and visibly shaken. In the hours that followed, they had time to contemplate and react and did: players from both teams reached out to the injured young boy and his family.

Braves players Chris Johnson and Gerald Laird visited him in an Atlanta area hospital after Tuesday night’s game, taking a bat signed by the Braves, hats, shirts and tomahawks. Carlos Gomez, the Brewers’ center fielder who fouled the ball sharply into the stands beyond the Braves’ dugout, went to the hospital to see him Wednesday as well.

Johnson and Laird said they received word that the boy was doing OK Wednesday and was in good spirits.

“It’s tough,” Johnson said. “You don’t ever want to see anyone get hurt, when people are coming and supporting you and watching the game, especially a little kid. As players we know how much that hurts to get hit by a ball. And he got hit in the head by it. I can’t imagine how hard that ball was coming off the bat. We’re just thankful he’s all right.”

Johnson said he didn’t see the boy get hit but he, like many others, could hear it.

“It sounded like it hit two barrels, off Gomez’s barrel, then off another one,” the Braves’ third baseman said. “It’s scary stuff. I’m just glad he’s all right.”

Johnson said when he, his fianc