Trea Turner wins back home crowd after wild two-home-run, two-error night: ‘We ride with Trea’
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Trea Turner has had a rollercoaster of a season.
He hasn’t been the same since winning the batting title the previous season with his .304 average. He’s taken a huge step down and hasn’t been one of the driving factors of the Phillies’ offense this season.
He’s been swinging a hot bat since the All-Star break, though. He’s hitting .500 (8 for 16) with four homers, two doubles and seven RBI. He’s homered in three out of the four games the Phils have played since the Mid-Summer Classic. But one thing still continues to pain him: his defense.
He’s having the worst defensive season of his career. His -9 DRS (defensive runs saved) and -6 OAA (outs above average) rank among the worst in all of baseball when it comes to qualified shortstops. Monday night, in particular, looked like it was going to be a bad night for Turner.
Immediately in the first inning, he botched a ground ball hit by Mookie Betts that loaded the bases for the Dodgers. Although the Phils starter that night, Cristopher Sanchez, got out of the bases-loaded jam, Turner was still booed mercifully by the 40,265 fans in attendance.
The first pitch to start the bottom of the first was a leadoff double for Turner, starting what he would eventually call a ridiculous game.
“Ridiculous game, in general, by me,” Turner said. “You do things like that, or have games like that, sometimes you just got to laugh about it. And they gave me a hard time.”
It was ridiculous to all the Phillies fans watching, but he put on a show against the reigning champs. After that double, he notched two more hits, and both of them were home runs. He picked up not just five RBI on the night but also his 200th career home run.
He also became the first Phillie to hit multiple home runs against the Dodgers since Maikel Franco hit two in 2018.
“I don’t think early in my career anybody thought I would hit 200 homers,” Turner said after the game on Monday night. “So, it’s kind of cool from an evolution standpoint of where I was when I was younger, and what kind of hitter I was, to being able to do that at the highest level. So, pretty cool.”
Unfortunately, he did not put on a show with his glove. In the sixth inning, he misplayed a ball hit by Andy Pages, which cut the Phillies’ lead down to just one run after Sanchez was pulled for Orion Kerkering. The following inning, he gave the Phils the ultimate cushion.
“You have games like that sometimes and you just have to laugh about it,” Turner said. “If you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re kind of done for.”
Turner has made 15 errors this season already. It’s the fourth-most of his career, and it’s only the start of the second half. He made 40 errors between 2023 and 2024. In the ninth, he booted one more ground ball hit by Tommy Edman in what was already a blowout to begin with.
“Obviously, Trea swung the bat really well,” said interim manager Don Mattingly. “He didn’t catch it as well.”
Mattingly still has faith in the Phillies’ leadoff hitter, and he knows that things will turn around for him.
“Trea’s our guy,” Mattingly said. “He works every day. It’s not like he’s out there and doesn’t care about defense. Trea cares about his defense and he wants to make plays. So, we ride with Trea. I trust him. You’ve got to put it behind you. He’s 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’s better than that.”
And it would be just fitting that the last out of the game was a ground out to who else but Trea Turner, sealing a 10-7 Phillies victory against the best team in all of baseball.
Turner knows he needs to be better. He had a similar stretch in his first year with the team in 2023. He had a career-low batting average and had just made a game-costing error in Miami. What brought him back to life was a standing ovation in the second half.
“He’s not bothered by what people say,” Mattingly said. “I don’t think it’s in Trea’s head. … He wants to make plays. He wants to win. And he wants to get better. And he knows he’s better than that.”
“I have to be better,” Turner said. “Everyone talks about rhythm at the plate, but there’s rhythm on the basepaths and rhythm on defense. Sometimes you feel good, sometimes you don’t. You just have to find that flow again.”
Still, Turner is striking out at a career-worst 22.7%, and his .246 average and .692 OPS are career lows so far. There’s still plenty of season left to go, and if Turner can pick up the pace in the home stretch of the season whilst the Phillies push for a playoff spot, he could put on a very good showing as the season winds down.
“I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing and build confidence in that,’’ Turner said, “and just kind of get in a rhythm. I feel like everyone talks about rhythm at the plate, but I think there’s rhythm on the basepaths, rhythm defensively.
And his teammates always have his back.
“He’s our shortstop,” Kyle Schwarber said. “That’s our guy.”
Andrew Glover
Andrew is in his first year covering sports for Philly Sports Reports. He is a podcaster and a digital content creator. Right now, he is in his second semester at Temple University pursuing a degree in Media Studies and Production. He has a certificate in Broadcast Journalism from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
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