Trea Turner Is A True Two-Way Player

PHILADELPHIA — I thought I would be miserable going to this game, watching two teams I hate (the Phillies and the Dodgers) ride high on their own egos amid overpriced concessions that jam a “ph” everywhere an “f” should be. I did it only so that I would finally get to see Shohei Ohtani play in person. But where was the phantastic two-way player, six-time all-star, and four-time MVP? Certainly not in the City of Brotherly Love. Whatever phacsimile was at the plate went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and an intentional walk. In other words, the most Ohtani did in that game was have a reputation for being a threat. Yes, I know players have bad games. But I’ve seen enough to understand that Shohei Ohtani is nothing compared to baseball’s real two-way player, Trea Turner, who was such an important force for both teams that he was responsible for almost half the runs scored in the Phillies’ 10-7 win. 

When Turner played short, ostensibly trying to help the Phillies prevent runs, everything hit his way turned to butter. Only one of his mishaps was ruled an error—a dropped ground ball from Mookie Betts in the top of the first which allowed the Dodgers to load the bases—but his defense assisted Los Angeles in several different ways. In the fourth inning, Turner misplayed a grounder from Alex Call to produce a single instead of a third out. In the sixth, he bobbled Andy Pages’s ground ball when he could have ended the inning with a simple throw to first, allowing Teoscar Hernandez to score. In the ninth, he misplayed Tommy Edman’s line drive up the middle to allow another runner on base and advance Pages.

But also, because Turner is such a great two-way player, he hit two home runs and a double, bringing in a total of phive runs for the Phillies. His dual loyalty was so confusing that those in the ballpark couldn’t decide how to feel about him. When Turner stepped up to bat, they booed, then cheered, then decided simply to make ambiguous noise.