MESA, Ariz. — Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw lost part of a tooth when he was hit by a line drive in the third Friday, but the NL MVP and Cy Young Award winner finished a five-inning outing.

Kershaw turned awkwardly on the mound and raised his glove up to try and field Oakland’s Andy Parrino’s broken-bat liner. Instead, the ball struck the left-hander in the jaw. He slumped to his knees for a few seconds while teammates and trainers rushed to help.

“It felt like getting hit by a pitch,” said Kershaw, who went down to the bullpen for some extra work after he left the game. “It’s just sore. I feel fine.”

After being examined by Dodgers head trainer Stan Conte for several minutes and taking a warmup pitch, Kershaw got the next batter, Coco Crisp, on a lineout to second base then gave up an RBI single to Craig Gentry.

“At this point, with only a couple of starts left to build up the pitch count, it’s pretty important to stay out there,” Kershaw said. “Stan checked me out and I was OK. I just lost some tooth.”

The tooth, from the back of his mouth, was recovered on the field.

Kershaw gave up three hits and a run in five innings. He struck out four.

“It was scary at first,” A’s starter Sonny Gray said. “Thankfully he was fine. It shows you what a competitor he is going back out in a spring training game.”

Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis was able to make light of it afterward. “His Gold Glove is a sham,” Ellis joked. “It was a broken-bat changeup hit right to him. It should have been a double play.”

Cubs’ Lester has ‘dead arm’

Chicago Cubs pitcher Jon Lester will miss his scheduled start Saturday because of arm fatigue.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon said Friday “he is just going through a little bit of a dead-arm period.”

Lester, who signed a $155 million, six-year contract during the offseason, is not experiencing pain, according to Maddon, and has gone through similar periods in previous spring trainings.

“More than likely, he will not miss the start after that,” Maddon said. “But we wanted to be very cautious with it right now. And at this point it does not impact opening day. I really feel strongly that he’s going to be OK.”