Trea Turner wows with three hits, beautiful slide in rout

DENVER -- A few minutes after the conclusion of the Dodgers' 13-0 rout of the Rockies at Coors Field in their series opener on Thursday night, Gavin Lux was asked about what’s been going right for him following his fourth multihit performance in five games.

“I’m just following after Trea [Turner],” Lux said. “I try to just do whatever he does.”

That’s not a bad approach, especially considering only two players in the National League have a higher WAR (FanGraphs) than Turner’s 3.5 since May 12, when the shortstop began hitting his stride both at the plate and in the field.

Turner added three hits -- a pair of singles and a three-run double -- to his season total on Thursday, giving him an MLB-leading 124 for the season, one more than teammate Freddie Freeman. With the Dodgers up 11-0, both star infielders were taken out of the game. They’ve earned the rest, having played in every game this year.

Turner keeps racking up the games and the hits, and both of those categories have significant meaning to him. They speak to just how reliable he has been for a star-studded lineup that hasn’t even fired on all cylinders yet, particularly with sluggers Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy trying to find consistency.

“I just like the hits stat in general because you have to play a lot,” Turner said. “'Counting stats' are kind of going out the door, and everybody’s about efficiency and whatnot, which is important, but it’s hard to hit a lot of those counting numbers if you don’t play often. … I think it’s something to take pride in.”

Thursday’s performance was vintage Turner. He singled, stole a base and scored in the first inning, delivered the bases-clearing double in the second before scoring later in that frame, and then singled and scored again in the fourth before being taken out of the game in the fifth.

Turner has been a National League MVP candidate in years past, and if not for a slow start this year, he’d be right in the thick of the discussion again. He still has time to get there, and given how prolific he’s been at the plate, that could very well happen -- after Thursday’s contest, he has a .337/.370/.558 slash line in July.

“I feel like I kind of always get off to a slow start,” Turner said. “I think getting more at-bats kind of helps me figure things out and make adjustments. Usually, I hit for a little bit more power early on but my average isn’t great, and it’s inconsistent. And then as the year goes on, I get more consistent.”

“Consistent” is probably the word you’d choose if you had to pick just one to describe Turner. And his consistency is a big reason the Dodgers, despite the struggles of Bellinger and Muncy -- as well as an injury-depleted pitching staff -- own the best record in the Majors at 66-32.

“We don’t take him for granted,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Since the middle of May, he’s really amplified his level of play on both sides of the baseball ... He’s a hit collector, loves to play, but I think that just on the margins, he’s become an even better player than he already was.”

As many stars as Roberts is able to pencil into the everyday lineup, it’s hard to argue that Turner isn’t around the top when it comes to value. He and Freeman are the top two in fWAR among Dodgers position players, with Freeman at 4.6 and Turner right behind him at 4.2.

One area in which Turner has everyone beat, however, is the aesthetic beauty of his slides. After he displayed his patented, stylish move once again to score a run Thursday night, adding to an already impressive highlight reel of beautiful slides over the past couple of seasons, inquiring minds want to know: What does he call that thing?

“I don’t think about it,” Turner said, laughing. “I just hit the ground and then pop back up. That’s for social media to name -- I’m surprised that hasn’t already happened.”

That will surely happen soon. As surely as Turner and his MVP-caliber talent will be in the lineup every day.