Trea Turner laughed as he pointed out that, no, his mom had not booed him again as she did from home during a game last month even as his numbers dipped more into uh-oh than All-Star territory.
Turner stuck with his process even as some Phillies fans grumbled they might have been stuck with a free-agent bust only two months into a US$300 million, 11-year free-agent contract.
Hang tight.
Photo: AP
Turner might just be getting started — just as the Phillies are warming up again in June as they did last season when they burst out of an early-season funk and rode the hot streak all the way to the World Series.
Turner on Monday homered twice for the first time with the Phillies, singled twice and knocked in three runs to lead the Phillies to an 8-3 win over the Detroit Tigers.
“When he’s getting his pitches, and he’s not missing, it’s pretty fun to watch,” Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola said.
Turner bumped his average to .243, but is not yet ready to stake one breakout game as the turning point of his season.
Yet, there are signs Turner is hitting his way back into elite form.
“I think it’s physical,” Turner said. “I think my swing wasn’t where it needed to be.”
He came to that conclusion a few days ago after the team’s analytics department and hitting coach Kevin Long “found something” that was out of whack in the shortstop’s swing.
Like so many changes in a baseball stance, the changes were not necessarily noticeable to the naked eye.
The results? Well, Turner’s first multi-homer game since July last year caught every baseball fan’s eye.
“Just something to do with kind of my back hip and knee,” Turner said. “It’s hard to visually see things, but with the technology now, they can tell you to a degree what things are positioned. It’s kind of something I thought in the past, but maybe overlooked because on video it looks the same. When you use technology, you can kind of break it down a little better.”
“I’m not scared to try anything,” he said. “I’ll go stand on my head up there. I don’t care what it looks like. It’s just about getting the job done.”
Elsewhere, the Reds blanked the Brewers 2-0, the Rangers edged the Cardinals 4-3, the Rays stung the Red Sox 4-1, the Marlins mastered the Royals 9-6, the Pirates pipped the Athletics 5-4, the Astros battered the Blue Jays 11-4 and the Padres crushed the Cubs 5-0.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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