Marlins' Derek Dietrich hit in face by ground ball

Published Mar. 20, 2014 2:04 p.m. ET

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JUPITER, Fla. -- Marlins second baseman Derek Dietrich experienced quite the scare during the fifth inning of Thursday afternoon's game against the Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium.

With one out and a runner at first, Jon Jay's ground ball took a bad hop and hit Dietrich in the face on a potential double play. He went down instantly.

The entire team congregated around him just to the right of second base as athletic trainer Mike Kozak checked on him. Dietrich walked off the field to the locker room under his own power holding a towel to his face.

Dietrich was taken to a local hospital and x-rays showed a small fracture on the bridge of his nose.

"I was fine, I was talking to them," Dietrich said after the game back in the clubhouse. "Obviously I was in some pain, but I'm OK now. I have no headaches or anything like that. See where I am tomorrow, monitor it and go from there."

The 24-year-old was 0 for 1 with a walk and RBI groundout on Thursday. He is batting .361 with four doubles, a triple, a home run and five RBI in 18 spring games.

If Rafael Furcal isn't fully healed in time for Opening Day, Dietrich is an option along with Donovan Solano. Upon his 2013 call-up, Dietrich knocked nine homers in 57 games.

Solano took Dietrich's place at second.

"In the grand scheme of things even though he has a little fracture in there he's going to be a day-to-day," Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. "Thats good for not only him but us. You don't want to see anybody get hurt this late in spring. It looks like he'll be OK. It's just a matter of when we get him back out there."

You can follow Christina De Nicola on Twitter @CDeNicola13 or email her at cdenicola13@gmail.com.