It has happened many times before and it happened again last night at Citi Field in New York.

As reported on Twitter by @Think_BlueLA prior to Wednesday night’s game, Dodgers ace and defending NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw was struck on his right ankle just to the left of his shin bone by a looping line drive during batting practice.

Kershaw was playing catch with fellow pitcher Chad Billingsley down the left field line at the time and as you would expect, Kershaw immediately quit throwing and began walking around grimacing in obvious pain. After about a minute, Dodgers Vice President of Medical Services Stan Conte walked out to Kershaw in shallow left field where Kershaw pulled up his pant leg and showed Conte where he had been struck. Shortly thereafter, Kershaw began walking towards the Dodgers dugout but stopped to sign a couple of autographs along the way.

“I was staring right at him when it happened,” said longtime Dodger fan Will Isabella. “Afterwards he came over to where a group of us were standing and he signed two autographs. I asked him if he was alright and he just smiled and then walked away.”

As Dodger fans may recall, Kershaw was also stuck by a batting practice two weeks ago at Dodger Stadium only days before he was slated to come off of the DL. Kershaw apparently suffered no ill-effects of that incident and nothing more was said about it.

Shortly after Wednesday night’s game began, Dodgers beat writer Ken Gurnick tweeted that Kershaw was apparently okay.

There was no official announcement about the incident from the Dodgers. Kershaw is tentatively scheduled to pitch on Thursday against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.