Justin Turner is expected to be back in the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup when a two-game series against the Minnesota Twins begins Tuesday night.
After missing five of the first six games coming out of the All-Star break due to abdominal tightness, Turner returned for the series finale against the Washington Nationals on July 27. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Turner would then miss the first two games at Coors Field.
However, the team ultimately decided to keep him out for the entire series against the Colorado Rockies, and he was placed on the 10-day injured list shortly after. That was despite the Dodgers maintaining confidence Turner had been recovering from his chest/abdominal injury.
Considering that the Dodgers hold a comfortable lead in the National League West standings, Turner recently expressed an understanding with not pushing matters while recovering, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
Turner said it is “just being cautious” rather than risk aggravating the injury and the Dodgers’ big lead in the NL West affords them room to err on the side of caution.
“I wouldn’t say it’s completely gone. It’s just being careful to make sure there’s not a big setback,” Turner said Friday. “It doesn’t really make sense to push it right now and do something that could be a big setback and miss a lot of time. We’re in a nice spot. We’re pretty good (in the standings) so just taking it really slow. Just really trying to be patient with it.”
Roberts wasn’t sure of the exact diagnosis of the injury when he first ruled out an IL stint, but Turner explained to DodgerBlue.com the discomfort was “just below my sternum, right on the inside of my ribcage.”
Turner first felt the pain when taking warmup swings before a third at-bat against the San Francisco Giants last on July 21. Once it didn’t dissipate, Turner informed the trainers of the trouble and received treatment.
“Decided it wasn’t worth trying to push through it and making it worse,” Turner said at the time. “Out of precaution, I shut it down.”
Turner heating up
After getting off to a slow start this season, Turner hit .400/.485/.545 with two doubles, two home runs and 13 RBI in July. He’s currently in the midst of an 18-game on-base streak.
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