Turner exits due to groin tightness; DL possible
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MILWAUKEE -- Justin Turner's return to the Dodgers' lineup lasted less than three innings, as the Los Angeles third baseman left Sunday's 11-2 win over the Brewers at Miller Park in the middle of the third due to right groin tightness.
Manager Dave Roberts said afterward that the team has not yet decided whether the setback will require a stint on the disabled list.
"[The DL] is a possibility, and I think for us to try to play both sides and we've tried to take the approach, with the All-Star break and the day-to-day," Roberts said. "But for him to get in there after this amount of time through two innings and still feel it, we're at a point where we've probably got to be more aggressive."
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Dealing with a right adductor strain, Turner pinch-hit for the Dodgers on Saturday, his first action since July 12. On Sunday, he returned to the Dodgers' lineup at third base for the first time in seven games.
Turner struck out in his first at-bat, but he doubled and drove in new Dodgers shortstop Manny Machado in Los Angeles' five-run second.
"It definitely didn't get worse," Turner said. "Hitting the ball down the line, not even thinking about running hard, didn't feel how I wanted it to be."
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Turner's replacement at third, Max Muncy, committed two errors during Saturday's loss, including a critical miscue in the sixth inning that led to the Brewers' go-ahead runs. Muncy started Sunday's contest at first base but moved to third when Turner left the game and made his third error in two days on Hernán Pérez's two-out grounder in the third inning.
Before Sunday's game, Roberts said he felt good about Turner being healthy and ready to go.
"We felt that he could go out there today and play, felt good about that," Roberts said. "But then in the middle of the game, I got wind that he still flubbed it. It wasn't something that got worse or something that grabbed or anything like that. For me, just for him feeling it was enough for me to get him out of there."
After playing at least 126 games in each of the past three years for the Dodgers, Sunday was just Turner's 50th contest in 2018, having missed time with several injuries.
"I'm not happy," Turner said. "Especially with the way the year has gone, it's been frustrating. It's just another thing that sucks."