Justin Turner celebrates his hits with a simple gesture: he raises both wrists, droops his hands downward, and wags his fingers back and forth. Teammate Chris Taylor inspired it after a four-hit game in 2017. Turner picked it up. Now it’s become a ritual.
The ritual is getting a lot of camera time in 2020. Turner has hits in 13 of his last 15 games dating to Game 1 of the National League Division Series. He’s reached base one way or another in each of his last 11. Turner’s steady bat was thumping along like a low drumbeat until a very loud Game 3 of the World Series on Friday.
Turner’s first-inning home run against Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Charlie Morton gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead they would not relinquish. It was the 11th postseason home run of Turner’s career, which tied Duke Snider on the franchise’s career leaderboard.
With two outs in the third inning, Turner hit a double to left field to extend a rally. The 18th postseason double of Turner’s career was also a franchise record. Among third basemen, only Hall of Famer Chipper Jones has as many.
Turner was already the Dodgers’ career leader in postseason games, hits, RBIs and total bases.
“It means I’ve had the opportunity to play on a lot of really good baseball teams deep in October,” Turner said. “Obviously it’s something I don’t think I ever think about. It’s something I can talk about when I’m done playing.”
One month shy of his 36th birthday, that time appears to be in the distant future. Turner also made a nifty play in the field when he forehand gloved a Mike Zunino ground ball on a short hop to start a double play in the third inning. It was one of many plays this month that have belied the age on Turner’s birth certificate.
Since Game 1 of the NLDS, he’s reached base at a healthy .379 clip. Dissatisfied, he continued to make adjustments at the plate.
“Tonight was really the first time all postseason I felt like I was able to put together five good at-bats,” he said. “I landed on something that should be sustainable and it felt really good.”Turner is in the final year of a four year, $64 million contract he signed prior to the 2017 season. He will become a free agent at the end of the World Series.
It’s become difficult to imagine him wearing another uniform after morphing from a marginal major leaguer in Baltimore and Queens to a borderline Hall of Famer in Los Angeles. While baseball paused for the novel coronavirus, and the MLB Players’ Association negotiated the terms of an abbreviated season with the league, it was Turner who spent much of the spring relaying the most current information to his teammates.
“He’s the heart and soul of this team,” Dodger catcher Austin Barnes said. “He’s been the heart and soul. Getting those runs across early was huge, especially the way Walker (Buehler) was throwing the ball. He’s a great guy in the clubhouse. We rely on him all the time.”
Justin Turner gets things started in Game 3. pic.twitter.com/uHt5qzRWEj
— MLB (@MLB) October 24, 2020
https://goo.gl/hYDEHJThe @Dodgers franchise #Postseason #⃣1⃣@Redturn2 stands alone. pic.twitter.com/JkvradbGhg
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) October 24, 2020
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