Red Sox’s Justin Turner Avoided Major Change After Taking Pitch To Face

Justin Turner and the Red Sox surely must be considering themselves very fortunate in wake of Monday afternoon’s scare.

It doesn’t sound like Boston will have to search for any sort of backfill after Turner was hit in the face by a fastball at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, Fla. The Red Sox’s new designated hitter didn’t suffer any facial fractures and the scans he went through at a local hospital all came back clean.

The extent of the damage appears to be the 16 stitches Turner needed to close up the wound he sustained from Matt Manning’s heater. The reparations won’t force the two-time All-Star to change his patented look, though.

“Yes, Justin Turner did get 16 stitches but heard he didn’t have to shave his beard,” WEEI’s Rob Bradford tweeted Tuesday afternoon. “Ball evidently hit right around cheekbone.”

Turner himself issued a public update less than 24 hours after he left the ballpark covered in blood. The 15th-year Major League Baseball veteran was appreciative of the care he received from the Red Sox and hospital workers and vowed to be back on the field “as soon as possible.”

Boston is slated to kick off its regular-season schedule March 30 when it welcomes the Baltimore Orioles to Fenway Park for the start of a three-game series.