Watching Red Sox starting pitcher Matt Clement fall to the ground Tuesday night was horribly stunning.

As the All-Star lay on the ground, barely moving, the anguish among his teammates and the Florida crowd was palpable, even for those fans watching the game on television.

Clement was conscious and talking when he was carried off the field, and tests conducted at a nearby hospital say that he will be OK. Even so, it was a scary moment.

Line drives up the middle are a part of the game. It’s why pitchers are taught to finish their delivery square to home plate, in a position that gives them the best chance to field a ball hit at them. Still, serious injuries occur.

In April, former Sox pitcher Derek Lowe was struck by a line drive and forced to leave the game. He has yet to recover from the injury. Five years ago, Bryce Florie was hit in the right eye by a line drive. Several bones in his face were broken and his vision impaired. An attempt to make a comeback with the Sox failed.

Lost seasons and shortened careers aren’t the worst that can happen. In 2003, an 18-year-old pitcher playing in a Montana American Legion game was killed by a line drive off an aluminum bat and, according to a 20-year study by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, seven deaths among high-school aged baseball players were recorded between 1982 and 2000. Another report says 17 amateur and pro players were killed by batted balls between 1991 and 2001.

Thankfully, that was not Clement’s fate. It was a horrifying moment that has luckily passed. The brush with tragedy, broadcast for all to see, puts what’s really important into perspective. Fans and players alike can be obsessive about the sports they love, but there are things more important than wins and losses. When Clement was struck, we found ourselves thinking not of the impact on the Red Sox, but on his family and how they must have felt just then. It was a real gut check.

Questions about whether Clement will be the same pitcher when he returns to the mound are secondary to the fact that he’s OK.