Turner shows October readiness with 2 HRs

LOS ANGELES -- Back in the lineup barely a week, Justin Turner on Friday night checked the final box to announce his postseason readiness.

Turner, who had only two home runs this season coming into the game, slugged two of the Dodgers’ five home runs in a 9-5 Freeway Series win that assured the Dodgers of finishing this season with the best record in MLB. The Dodgers also eliminated the Angels from an American League postseason berth.

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Even a team that added Mookie Betts relies on Turner to be its Mr. October. So as his recovery dragged on from what originally was called a left hamstring cramp suffered stealing second base on Aug. 28, and the postseason approached, the questions mounted.

Turner said the extended recovery was necessary because he actually had two hamstring injuries. The original one was the result of being hit on the back of the left leg by a Kyle Freeland pitch six days earlier. Turner is a record-breaking bull’s-eye when it comes to getting drilled, but this one was different.

“It was one of the better bruises I’ve had,” Turner said of the drilling. “It started draining to the back of my knee, and it started draining down to my calf. I was coming back from that, then also the tweak to the hammy, as well. I think I actually recovered faster from the tweak in the hammy than I did from the bruising in the back of the hammy and knee.”

Turner returned to the lineup Sept. 15 and spent his first five games back as the designated hitter. He sat Tuesday night after feeling some stiffness and has played third base since Wednesday night. He’s 12-for-28 (.429) in eight games since returning from the injured list.

It was on defense Friday night that Turner suffered another bruise when the base of his left thumb took the brunt of Albert Pujols’ 107.8 mph ground smash leading off the second inning. In his next two at-bats, Turner homered.

Managing the workload, Dave Roberts replaced Turner at third base with Edwin Ríos after five innings. The first ball hit to Ríos was an Anthony Rendon 100.7 mph ground smash that hit the base of his left thumb, and then Ríos homered in the bottom of the inning.

“The ball Rendon hit kind of did the same thing Pujols’ ball did to me,” said Turner. “We had matching tattoos on our thumb. I told him, ‘Hey, those have homers in them.’ Sure enough, he went up and hit a homer. Maybe that’s the trick.”

Early on, the game turned into a Home Run Derby, which is right in the Dodgers’ wheelhouse. Will Smith and AJ Pollock also homered to give the Dodgers five, while the Angels hit only three, two of them off Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw, who scuffled through four innings and one postgame interview in preparation for the National League Wild Card Series.

“It was a bad night,” said Kershaw. “Nothing was great. Thankful it’s now and not later.”