Trea Turner experienced the full range of the Philadelphia sports fan Monday night.<\/p>\n
He was booed vociferously.<\/p>\n
He was cheered euphorically.<\/p>\n
Such is life when you\u2019re swinging a hot bat and wielding a leaky glove.<\/p>\n
Turner belted a pair of home runs \u2013 a two-run shot and a three-run shot \u2013 in the Phillies\u2019 wild 10-7 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n
With the five-RBI performance, the Phillies\u2019 shortstop atoned for a ragged night in the field. He made his third error in four games \u2013 and 15th\u00a0of the season \u2013 in the first inning and misplayed three other balls that were ruled base hits. His misplay with two outs in the top of the sixth inning allowed a run to score as the Dodgers, who trailed, 4-0, early in the game, made it a 4-3 game.<\/p>\n
Turner was booed loudly as he failed to make a play on the generously scored infield hit by Andy Pages.<\/p>\n
Moments later, the boos turned to cheers when Turner clubbed a three-run homer just inside the left-field foul pole to cap a four-run inning and give the Phils an 8-3 lead. The homer was the 200th\u00a0of Turner\u2019s career. His big offensive night also included the 300th\u00a0double of his career in the first inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a ridiculous game, in general, by me,\u201d Turner said afterward. \u201cI was happy we got the win, but it was just a roller coaster \u2013 up, down, up, down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turner\u2019s third misplay of the game came in the ninth inning on a ball off the bat of Tommy Edman. Turner could not make a play and the ball bounced to third baseman Alec Bohm. At that point, the ridiculousness of it all got to Turner and he couldn\u2019t help but laugh as his teammates tried to lighten the mood by playfully ribbing him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have games like that sometimes and you just have to laugh about it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you can\u2019t laugh at yourself, you\u2019re kind of done for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laughter might be medicine on a night when you drive in five runs and win a ballgame, but in the big picture, Turner\u2019s defensive struggles are no laughing matter. At least they won\u2019t be as the games get bigger and bigger down the stretch.<\/p>\n
Surely, they are no laughing matter to the front office, which has to at least consider moving Turner to the outfield next season. He made 40 errors at shortstop his first two seasons with the club, improved greatly last season, but is struggling again this season. The 33-year-old has seven more years remaining on his contract.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t look for any changes in the short term.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrea\u2019s our guy,\u201d manager Don Mattingly said. \u201cHe works every day. It\u2019s not like he\u2019s out there and doesn\u2019t care about defense. Trea cares about his defense and he wants to make plays. So, we ride with Trea. I trust him. You\u2019ve got to put it behind you. He\u2019s not bothered by what people say. He wants to make plays. He wants to win and he wants to get better and he knows he\u2019s better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Turner: \u201cI have to be better. Everyone talks about rhythm at the plate, but there\u2019s rhythm on the basepaths and rhythm on defense. Sometimes you feel good, sometimes you don\u2019t. You just have to find that flow again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turner\u2019s defense has become a red-hot issue just as his bat has gotten red hot. All season long, the Phillies have been looking for a productive right-handed stick. Over the last month, Turner has been just that.<\/p>\n
Over his last 27 games, he is hitting .324 (36 for 111) with seven homers and 19 RBIs. His on-base percentage over that span is .360.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always want to be a dangerous hitter,\u201d Turner said. \u201cI feel when I\u2019m going good, I can affect the game in a lot of ways. I always talk about hitting mistakes. Tonight, I got a few of those and that\u2019s when you can really drive the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turner wasn\u2019t the only one to drive the ball in the game. Mookie Betts homered twice for the Dodgers. Brandon Marsh, Bryce Harper and Derek Hill all homered for the Phillies late in the game. It was a wild one, as you’d expect from two frequent postseason foes, with lots of intensity and lots of Phillies offense.<\/p>\n
Everything started with Turner.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Trea goes, we go,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cWhen he\u2019s getting on base and doing his thing, it changes our club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cristopher Sanchez battled a high pitch count and pitched 5 1\/3 innings. He left leading 4-1 and earned his 12th\u00a0win.<\/p>\n
Zack Wheeler gets the ball Tuesday night against All-Star lefty Justin Wrobleski.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trea Turner experienced the full range of the Philadelphia sports fan Monday night. He was booed vociferously. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,11350],"class_list":["post-248260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-phillies-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}