Trea Turner exits game vs. Giants with left hamstring soreness originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
In the bottom of the fourth inning Friday night, Phillies shortstop Trea Turner singled with two outs and stole second. Then, when Bryce Harper walked on a pitch that caromed off the glove of Giants catcher Tom Murphy and rolled toward the backstop, Turner advanced to third. . .and kept running to score what proved to be the decisive run in a 4-3 win at Citizens Bank Park.
It was just the latest reminder of how much of an impact he can have.
But when the Phils went back on to the field in the top of the fifth, Edmundo Sosa came out of the dugout to play short. It turned out Turner had injured his left hamstring just before he tagged the plate.
Now the Phillies will have to figure out how to get by without him for what’s expected to be at least a few days while crossing their fingers that it’s not longer.
Rob Thomson admitted he’s at least a little concerned. “Sure,” he said. “Anytime it’s a hamstring, muscle, especially a guy like that. That play won us the ballgame.”
Turner made a spur of the moment decision to try to score when he saw that Murphy and pitcher Jordan Hicks were reacting in a way that indicated they expected him to stop at third. “I just felt like they were far from home plate and it would have taken a great play to get me out. That’s kind of how I saw it in my head,” he said.
If Turner is expected to miss a relatively short period of time, the manager said his inclination would be to plug Sosa into the lineup. If it’s going to be MIA long enough to require a roster move, that would be a different discussion. Thomson indicated he’s not considered moving second baseman Bryson Stott to shortstop, at least not now.
“It’s a huge loss (if he’s out for an extended time),” Thomson said. “He’s Trea Turner. He’s one of the best players in baseball. I don’t know what the results are going to be, but we’ll find out more (Saturday).”
Turner, who has played in every game this season, is resigned to missing at least some time.
“It was pretty sore,” he said. “I’ve never really had anything like this before. They seemed pretty positive in the training room. At least more positive than I thought. So I was pretty happy with that.
“It was kind of a freak thing. I think it will be at least a couple days. I hate being hurt and I promise it’s not going to be fun for the training staff. I’ll wear them out and they’ll want me on the field more than I’ll want to be on the field.”
Turner is hitting .343, second on the team to only third baseman Alec Bohm, who extended his hitting streak to 16 games with a third inning single. His 43 hits in March/April were a franchise record and his 25 runs scored were second only to Jimmy Rollins (26 in 2007).
