Giancarlo Stanton hit in scrimmage

— -- It was expected at some point Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton would have to react to getting hit by a pitch, but he probably didn't think he'd be the victim of friendly fire.

Stanton was plunked in the hip by a Henderson Alvarez fastball during an intrasquad scrimmage Saturday. To his credit, Stanton said the errant pitch didn't bother him at all.

"Feels good," he said. "No thoughts, 100 percent fine. Didn't have one thought about it."

Stanton is coming back after a fastball to the face cut short his breakout 2014 season. He now wears a batting helmet with a specially designed face guard to protect his head in the future.

Though he now has more protection, Saturday's accident still provided a quick scare to the team.

J.T. Realmuto was catching for Alvarez when Stanton was hit and said he cringed from behind the plate "for about a tenth of a second until I realized it didn't hit him in too bad of a spot.

"He's built pretty good, so I knew it probably didn't hurt him too bad. I don't even know if he felt it. I think the baseball might have been hurt more than him."

Manager Mike Redmond said the upshot of the incident was that Stanton got this out of the way early.

"The good thing is he turned the right way," Redmond said. "I think we've all kind of anticipated when that was going to happen. It's probably better to get it out of the way now. I know it's been in all of those pitchers' minds when he steps in there. ... He handled it fine and moved on."