It was an exciting Friday for the Philadelphia Phillies and star Trea Turner as he had an impeccable night capped off with the walk-off hit that gave his team the 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals. Turner spoke after the game about his performance and overall feeling in terms of his health and previous slump that he was in.
Turner had been struggling since the All-Star break which saw his OPS drastically go down which some people saw as the usual slump a player goes through or possibly his hamstring impacting him since he missed significant time earlier this season. However, the past two games for Turner had been great totaling seven hits (four on Friday) where he said that he feels like he's “doing things right” and spoke deeply about his running since the speed looked up to par according to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com.
“It’s weird, it’s like a day-by-day thing,” Turner said. “Some days I feel good, some days I don’t. I think that’s the case with everybody. I feel like it’s a long season obviously and I want to be healthy in the postseason. Sometimes it may not look like I’m running 110 percent, or sometimes it does. It’s just kind of whatever it is that day.”
Trea Turner compares himself to first season with Phillies
The 31-year old Friday ran from home to second base on a double in the fifth inning in eight seconds which per Zolecki, “it was his fastest home-to-second on a double since May 27, 2023, when he got there in 7.82 seconds.” The Turner that fans love could be back though he would say he was “more consistent” earlier in his career.
“I felt like I was more consistent then,” Turner said. “I talked about it a lot when I signed here, I feel like since I’ve been here when I’m going good, it’s been really, really good. But when I’m going bad, it’s been pretty bad. That wasn’t really the case most of my career. I was kind of more in the middle. Just looking at different things and trying to figure out how to hit the ball the other way.”
“When I tell myself, ‘Hit the ball the other way,’ it doesn’t necessarily come out that way. I worked a lot yesterday on doing that. In 2020-21, I did a really good job of that. Today, I kind of started to feel like that again.”
Trea Turner on the reality of injuries
So far this season, Turner has hit a .309 batting average to go with 13 home runs and 42 RBIs in 81 games as the goal is to be consistent on offense while staying healthy.
“You get nicks and bruises every day, all of us do,” Turner said. “You get hit by a pitch, you take a swing, certain things, you’re not always going to feel 100 percent. I want to play every day. Sometimes as you get older, that’s not necessarily going to be reckless and crazy. 25-year-old Trea would sprint every time and whatnot. … I’ve got to pick my spots, especially with what happened earlier in the season.”
The Phillies are 72-50 which puts them at the top of the NL East as they look to sweep the Nationals Saturday evening.
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