Clayton Kershaw Takes Liner to Face During Spring Training, Stays in Game

While many in the United States were stressing about their NCAA tournament brackets Friday, Los Angeles Dodgers fans received a bit of a scare when ace Clayton Kershaw took a broken-bat line drive to the face.

In the bottom of the third inning of Friday's spring training game against the Oakland Athletics, a line drive off the bat of Oakland's Andy Parrino struck Kershaw in the side of the face.

Kershaw, the reigning National League MVP and Cy Young Award winner, went down momentarily. As the Dodgers star sat on the mound, fans waited with bated breath to see just how severe the situation was.

Luckily, the left-hander was able to shake it off and stay in the game.

Kershaw talked about the situation after the game, via MLB.com's Ken Gurnick:

"

I think I overshot it. I thought it was coming back faster than it was. ...

Scare? Yeah, I guess so. It felt like getting hit by a pitch. Nothing serious. I don't think I panicked too much. It was sore. I think I lost some tooth. I spit it out, and we got it. I assume tomorrow, I'll be sore. I feel fine now.

"

Kershaw went on to retire eight of the last nine batters he faced and exited after five strong innings of work.

Update on Saturday, March 21

Per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, Kershaw had to have a tooth removed as a result of the play.

According to Gurnick, Kershaw is still expected to be the Dodgers' Opening Day starter.

"Manager Don Mattingly said further dental work would be required, but Kershaw's spring throwing routine wouldn't be affected, and he would make his Opening Day start," he reported.  

--End of Update--

[MLB.com]