Justin Turner was out of the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup for a third consecutive game due to what the team has classified as abdominal tightness.
Turner was removed in the eighth inning of the series opener against the San Francisco Giants, but was already feeling some improvement by the weekend. “I honestly don’t even know what it is,” he told DodgerBlue.com.
“I just have a little inflammation. I don’t if it’s cartilage or muscular, or what it is, but it already feels better. I’m going to go do some stuff, move around, see how that goes and then hopefully be back to doing some baseball stuff [Sunday] and let that determine what that means.”
Turner explained the discomfort is “just below my sternum, right on the inside of my ribcage.”
He first felt the pain when taking warm-up swings before a third at-bat against the Giants on Thursday. Once it didn’t dissipate, Turner informed the trainers of the trouble and received treatment before being pinch-hit for by Jake Lamb in the eighth inning.
“Decided it wasn’t worth trying to push through it and making it worse,” Turner said. “Out of precaution I shut it down.”
Having previous experience with oblique and intercostal injuries, he is relieved the latest injury has a different feeling.
On top of the Dodgers already being without several key contributors, the injury comes at a bad time for Turner on a personal level.
Turner is batting .385 with a 1.006 on-base plus slugging percentage during the month of July and has a 17-game on-base streak.
Will Dodgers put Justin Turner on injured list?
Prior to Turner speaking with DodgerBlue.com, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts indicated the team could potentially place him on the 10-day injured list and backdate the stint.
Sunday was the final opportunity to fully maximize the permitted three days to retroactively put a player on the IL, though Roberts said the Dodgers did not view it as a strict deadline.
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