'I feel like I'm doing things right': Turner caps off four-hit night with walk-off knock

PHILADELPHIA -- Trea Turner looks different.

He looks refreshed.

He did not play Wednesday because Phillies manager Rob Thomson thought he needed a break; Turner had struggled offensively for weeks, and that seemed to carry into the field defensively. He ran tentatively on the bases, too, perhaps still concerned about his left hamstring that sidelined him for several weeks earlier this season. His OPS dropped 136 points from the All-Star break through Tuesday, while his batting average dropped 52 points.

He wasn’t hurt, the Phillies said. But he didn’t look totally healthy, either.

But after Turner went 3-for-5 with one double, two RBIs and two runs scored on Thursday, he went 4-for-5 with a walk-off single in the ninth inning in Friday night’s 3-2 victory over Washington.

“I feel like I’m doing things right,” Turner said.

“There’s a reason why he makes all that money, right?” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said of Turner, who's in the second season of an 11-year, $300 million contract. “He’s one of the best players in the game.”

On Thursday, Turner smashed a ball to third baseman José Tena with one out in the bottom of the first inning. The ball got on Tena quickly, and he backed up a couple steps to field it. Turner flew down the line for a single.

Statcast clocked Turner’s sprint speed at 31 feet per second. It was his fastest home-to-first sprint speed since a groundout in Pittsburgh on July 20, and was his eighth-fastest home-to-first time this season (4.18 seconds).

On Friday, Turner raced to second for a double in the fifth inning. Statcast clocked his home-to-second time at 8 seconds. It was his fastest home-to-second on a double since May 27, 2023, when he got there in 7.82 seconds.

“It’s weird, it’s like a day-by-day thing,” Turner said about his running. “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.”

Turner said on Thursday he spent Wednesday watching video from his 2020-21 seasons.

“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.”

So, yeah, he said it felt great on Thursday when he hit an opposite-field single in the seventh inning at 109 mph.

It was his second hardest-hit ball of the season.

“I wasn’t really trying to hit the ball the other way,” Turner said. “But when I’m doing that I’m kind of at my best. I feel like that’s a pitch that I have fouled off for the last month. To hit it where it should go and be in that position, I feel like that’s when the at-bat should be over and that’s what I’ve been missing for a month.”

If he stays on track offensively, if he runs like he typically does without risking injury, Turner is an incredible catalyst for the Phillies’ offense.

“You get nicks and bruises every day, all of us do,” Turner, 31, 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.

“It’s a little bit mental, but I think it’s more physical. I don’t want it to feel like I’m dogging it or not trying or any of those things. That’s definitely not the case. But it’s just kind of evolving a little bit and getting older.”