Nobody felt worse about their performance in the field in Monday night's series opener versus the Dodgers than Trea Turner. His four mishaps at short in that game were not received too kindly by fans all over the internet, and that frustration would have reached a boiling point had Turner not silenced his critics with an electric two-homer, five-RBI performance at the plate
Luckily for Turner, baseball's fast-paced, daily schedule makes it easier for a struggling infielder to make amends on defense. And that's exactly what happened at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday — on a wet and muddy diamond, no less.
In the top half inning of the third inning, Turner made a smooth stop, sliding to his right side on his knees to snag a ball hit by Alex Call. Turner quickly gathered himself and stood up, sending a bouncing throw Bryce Harper's way to complete the out. Later, with the Dodgers leading 2–1 in the fifth inning, Call was robbed of yet another hit by the Phillies' shortstop. This time, Turner laid out to his left, made a slick spin move and barely beat the speedy Call with his throw to first base. Call probably trudged back to the dugout thinking he had caught Turner's defense on the wrong day. Turner, however, surely was feeling good about himself following his rollercoaster ride on Monday.
What will be key in continuing Trea Turner's turnaround on defense?
The only way through an obstacle is too continue to put your head down, block out the noise and keep moving forward. In baseball, that usually simply means heading back into the lab. Fortunately for Trea, he has Bobby Dickerson — the man credited for resurrecting Alec Bohm's once dastardly defense — as his infield coach.
Besides Turner, no one probably feels worse about his league-leading 15 errors than Dickerson. Per 94.1 WIP's Dave Uram, Turner and Dickerson have participated in specialized one-on-one drills before games. Of course, that didn't change before Tuesday night's outing. In fact, the pregame training was most likely heightened in light of Turner's troubles at the start of the week.
As the heart of the infield, shortstop is debatably the hardest position to play. Eight out of the top ten leaders in errors this season have played games at short, with Turner leading the pack. It doesn't help that, per Dickerson in an article for The Athletic, Turner "gets so down and hard on himself" and "beats himself to death" after botching a play in the infield.
A lack of confidence is never an easy thing to deal with, even for a multi-millionaire professional athlete. While Turner's defensive difficulties have been a problem since he joined the Phillies, he is their best option at shortstop at this moment in time. Understanding what's been wrong while juggling the mental strain of his errors will take effort, but it appears that he and Dickerson are getting as many reps as they can so the Phillies infielder can improve.
Hopefully Tuesday's performance will be the beginning of a clean slate for Turner, who seems to be doing whatever it takes to bog down his blunders in the field.
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