Trea Turner, Phillies react to crucial error, bad defense after loss to Brewers
PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies were one out away from leaving the top of the seventh inning safely as they clung to a one-run lead, hoping to maybe salvage a win over Milwaukee after Saturday’s disaster at Citizens Bank Park. They got the ground ball they needed, and the play was there to be made.
Then Trea Turner, the shortstop whose defense is often a topic of discussion, booted the ball. The Brewers tied the game on the error before taking the lead for good in a 5-2 win over the Phillies on Sunday afternoon.
They became the first team to sweep a series in Philadelphia since July 29-31 of last season when the Yankees came to town. The Phillies did not play their finest baseball.
“Just didn’t read the hop great,” Turner said. “Needed to go back, probably backwards a half step. Kind of just gave myself a tough hop. It hit me in the wrist and rolled up, and that’s the difference in the game. Gotta make the play.”
Turner and the Phillies have been mostly pleased with his defense so far this year as he’s made some improvements over his first two seasons in Philly. He can make athletic plays, but sometimes the simple ones seem to escape him. He got caught flat-footed on the hard grounder from William Contreras on Sunday.
“You gotta create your own momentum on some of those plays,” Turner said, “and I didn’t do that.”
As even Turner noted, many of the mishaps seem to come at the worst times for the club.
“I feel like my defense has been really good, just the mistakes have been in what feels like big moments, which is frustrating,” he said. “But where I was at the last two years, I feel a lot better.”
Turner entered Sunday with two outs above average, according to Statcast, a big jump in the right direction from last season. He hasn’t graded out as well by defensive runs saved, with a mark of minus-four entering the day. Turner has looked better, but there are still head-scratching plays at times.
There could be a day he’s moved off the shortstop position in the future, but it won’t be now. Turner will just have to do his best to avoid blunders like the one on Sunday.
“It’s kind of a routine ground ball, and he knows it,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “He’s gotta make the play.”
Turner was not the only player with a poor defensive showing in that decisive seventh inning. After a 17-7 beatdown on Saturday afternoon, Philadelphia held a 2-1 advantage going into the frame on an afternoon when starter Ranger Suárez competed without his best stuff.
To lead off the seventh, Milwaukee’s Caleb Durbin hit a fly ball to left field; it was misplayed by outfielder Weston Wilson, who took what Thomson called a “check-mark route” after not seeing the ball off the bat. It fell for a double, knocking Suárez out of the game.
“I didn’t get a good read,” Wilson said. “But the ball’s gotta be caught.”
Reliever Orion Kerkering came in and nearly got out of the inning, making the pitch he needed with two outs and runners on the corners. He threw a first-pitch sweeper to the catcher Contreras, who rolled it to shortstop. Turner made the error on the play, and Durbin scored. Jake Bauers followed with a pinch-hit two-run double. The Phillies should have been out of trouble, but they trailed by two runs. They allowed another in the ninth en route to the loss.
“I know they’re working at it, but we gotta clean it up,” Thomson said. “And we will. But it’s been a tough couple of days.”
With a thin bullpen that’s shuffling in different pieces, the team can’t really afford to give outs away late in games. But that was just the way the weekend was going for the Phillies. They’ll have an off day to reset before taking on the Blue Jays in Toronto, with Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez and rookie Mick Abel set to start.
“It’s a disappointing loss,” Thomson said. “Get swept at home, which doesn’t happen very often, and gotta go on the road. The day off tomorrow, clear our heads, and we got Wheeler on Tuesday. So we got to keep moving forward, but we gotta clean some stuff up.”