ARLINGTON, TX – A laugh, a shrug and a shake of the head is the reaction given Friday night from Trea Turner following the Phillies 9-1 win over the Texas Rangers. He went 2-for-4 with five RBI, a double and a home run.
That isn’t what particularly caused the response from Turner after the win … it was when the subject came up concerning his home and away power numbers.
Here’s the breakdown heading into Saturday’s game: Turner has 12 home runs on the road, none at Citizens Bank Park this season. His RBI totals are 14 at home compared with 37 on the road, and his slugging percentage is .500 on the road to .365 at home.
Pretty interesting when you consider Turner has played 58 games at home and 55 away and has only eight more at-bats on the road. Most of the rest of his numbers are comparable in the home and road splits, it’s just those power numbers.
“I have no idea to be honest with you,” Turner said of the disparity. “So I looked at my heat zones for home and away, and away I have a lot more zones. And then at home, I’m just hitting the ball away really well. I don’t think I’ve ever had that in my career to where I’ve always been good at pulling the ball. I take my hits the other way but at home it just seems like that outer third is kind of my sweet spot. I couldn’t tell you why. We were talking about it in the cage and I have no idea. Hopefully with a little adjustment the last few days, hopefully that kind of turns around and goes back to normal.”
In a nine-game stretch from July 27 to August 5, Turner hit a bit of a lull where he went 4-for-38 and saw his average dip down to .280. His last three games before Saturday, Turner has seemed to find a rhythm with six hits in 12 at-bats with a home run and six RBI.
“I have no idea what that is,” said Thomson of the road power surge. “I think it’s just coincidence, really. He’s hit home runs in CBP before. I don’t know what it is.”
Thomson’s extended plan for outfield rotation
The search for a “regular” outfield lineup continued Sunday as Nick Castellanos got a day off and the outfield consisted of Brandon Marsh in left, Harrison Bader in center and Max Kepler in right to go against Jacob deGrom.
“So, it was pre planned,” Thomson said. “I didn’t give it to you yesterday because I hadn’t seen Casty yet. This turf is, I like the turf because it plays a little bit more like grass than other turf but it’s pretty firm, pretty hard. So, I was trying to give all the outfielders one day off on it. That’s one thing. Plus, Bader’s had pretty good success against him. Three at-bats but he’s hit the ball hard twice and he’s got a couple of hits. I just felt it was a good day to give Casty the day off. I just thought, where we’re at, we’re trying to figure out who everybody is and how we’re going to align this thing. Just the matchup and the surface is probably the best day to do it.”
So, the question was posed, once you do figure it out, will there be pretty much a set starting outfield moving forward?
Thomson was non-committal.
“It’s probably just a day-to-day thing right now, unless somebody gets super-hot and then we have to go with the hot hand.”
Odds and ends
Thomson said that Jhoan Duran would see action Saturday, no matter what. “He needs to pitch today. Banks has had four days off, he’s had five days off. Although we had up last night and he got hot, he doesn’t like to go more than five days without seeing hitters. We’ll get him in tonight for sure. And Banks is really good when he pitches more often so we need to get him in too.”
On the pitching front, Thomson added that reliever David Robertson will join the team Sunday after his stint in Lehigh Valley. Aaron Nola will get another start there on Tuesday, and if all goes well it appears he will join the Phillies after that and possibly get a start next weekend. José Alvarado will pitch for the Iron Pigs on Sunday and then go again either Tuesday or Wednesday. He can rejoin the team on August 19th.
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