Justin Turner helps blast Dodgers past Stephen Strasburg and the Nationals
Rarely, if ever, will a baseball player’s intentions match up with his opponent’s actions better than this: In the third inning of a 6-3 victory Thursday, Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner squinted through the Mid-Atlantic humidity at Washington Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg and found himself begging for a high fastball.
Ahead in the count, with two of his teammates on base and one home run already on his ledger for the afternoon, Turner sought a pitch he could elevate. Strasburg obliged, a misfire, rather than an act of kindness.
The 94-mph fastball hovered just above Turner’s waistline and split the plate. Turner volleyed it beyond the center-field fence, a game-defining blast that allowed his team to survive the rest of the day.
Backed by Turner’s two home runs, the Dodgers (54-43) escaped Nationals Park with a series victory over the leaders of the National League East. He drove in five runs and established a new career-high with 17 homers on the season.
“It’s almost like it isn’t a hot streak anymore,” catcher A.J. Ellis said. “This is just who J.T. is.”
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Indeed, since Turner arrived in Los Angeles in 2014, he has transformed from reserve infielder to reliable force. He has recovered from a quiet opening to 2016 to hit 13 home runs since June. In a series when an illness kept Corey Seager on the bench, Turner filled the void.
The production provided enough cushion on a day when the odds looked stacked against the Dodgers. Washington rolled out its right-handed All-Star in Strasburg, who had won 16 decisions in a row. Because of an emergency caused by Hyun-Jin Ryu’s sore elbow, the Dodgers called upon Julio Urias, a 19-year-old who had barely pitched in the past fortnight.
Urias lasted four innings. Manager Dave Roberts needed seven relievers to finish the game, including three in the fifth and three in the sixth.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Roberts said. “But we found a way to fill up five innings.”
Urias is unlikely to stay with the team beyond Thursday. He logged 3 1/3 innings for the Dodgers on July 4. The organization sent him to the minors a day later. He was assigned a bullpen role with triple-A Oklahoma City, which would allow him to conserve innings and prepare for a possible stint as a reliever with the big league club later this season.
Like so many other plans laid by the Dodgers for 2016, injuries forced a course correction. Urias took the mound Thursday having thrown one inning in the past two weeks.
“It is a little hard,” Urias said through an interpreter. “But when you get the opportunity, you have to make the best of it. Going up and down can be hard, but you have to take advantage of the situation.”
But he did start the day with a lead. After a two-out double by Adrian Gonzalez, Turner crushed a hanging slider from Strasburg (13-1). Urias gave back a run in the bottom of the inning. In the third, following an RBI double by Gonzalez, Strasburg granted Turner his fastball wish.
On June 8, Turner went hitless in four at-bats against Colorado. His on-base plus slugging percentage sunk to .652, well below the .876 OPS he posted during his first two seasons with the Dodgers. After undergoing microfracture surgery on his knee in the off-season, Turner appeared unable to recapture his form.
A night later, facing the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park, Turner pulled a game-winning home run into the left-field seats. Both he and Roberts spoke after the game of his commitment to lifting pitches in that direction, a mechanical and mental adjustment that he has stuck with. In his last 35 games, Turner has hit .333 with 13 homers and 35 RBIs.
“The timing feels good,” Turner said. “I’m seeing the ball good. I don’t think much is different from the first two months, other than I’m finding some holes and balls are getting down.”
Up five runs, Roberts removed Urias after 77 pitches. Roberts sent in Pedro Baez for the fifth. Baez walked Strasburg, and Roberts noticed his command wavering and his pace slackening. So Roberts turned to left-handed reliever Luis Avilan, who promptly hit one left-handed hitter, Daniel Murphy, and walked another, Bryce Harper.
The bases were loaded, and Roberts went back to the well. He inserted right-hander Louis Coleman, who induced a fly-out by third baseman Anthony Rendon to end the inning.
Coleman came back for the sixth — and soon gave up a run on a double by shortstop Danny Espinosa. Joe Blanton yielded an RBI single in the seventh to Murphy. The lead kept dwindling, but Adam Liberatore (2-0) threw a scoreless eighth and Kenley Jansen closed the door in the ninth for his 28th save.
The victory was not a miracle, but it was unlikely. A pair of swings by Turner carried the day.
“J.T. has been fantastic,” Roberts said. “The two-run homer, the three-run homer, obviously, that was the difference in the game.”
Twitter: @TimesMcCullough
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UPDATES:
3 p.m.: This article has been updated throughout.
This article was originally published at 1:10 p.m.
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