GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Clayton Kershaw got through one of his least-favorite spring training rituals Saturday morning. He threw batting practice to Dodgers hitters.

One of those hitters, Juan Uribe, swung at a hanging slider and sent it over the left-center field fence to rattle around among the rocks.

“I’m going to have to hear about Uribe hitting a homer off me all season, so I’m just glad I gave him some confidence for the year,” Kershaw joked.

Kershaw typically has struggled in spring training, a fact that has had zero correlation with his performance in the regular season. That hasn’t stopped him from being hard on himself when the results from Arizona aren’t great. Kershaw makes his 2015 Cactus League debut Thursday.

A year ago, he had just four spring starts and had a 9.20 spring ERA, saying before embarking for Australia, “Obviously, I don’t want to have a 9.00 ERA in the regular season, so I’m going to try not to have that.”

Kershaw had a 1.77 ERA during the regular season, winning his fourth straight major-league ERA title.

This camp already has an advantage over last spring, which was compressed due to the team’s season-opening trip across the Pacific to play the Arizona Diamondbacks at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Kershaw figures to get the usual six or seven spring starts. He’ll also have some time to adjust to the new pace-of-play rules, which will -- if things go as planned -- speed up the time wasted between innings. It figures to be a non-issue with Kershaw, who typically is glaring at the home-plate umpire ready to go at the start of innings.

“I probably won’t even notice it, to be honest,” Kershaw said. “I’m pretty quick on and off. I think it might affect some people.”

Somebody asked Kershaw if he expected Yasiel Puig to make it to right field in time to avoid any penalties. Puig, typically, is the last Dodgers player to return to his position for defensive innings.

“I’m assuming he’ll be out there,” Kershaw said.