The Los Angeles Dodgers head to Wrigley Field with a 2-0 advantage in the National League Championship Series over the Chicago Cubs, behind Justin Turner’s clutch walk-off home run on Sunday night.
Turner’s unforgettable blast ironically fell on the 29th anniversary of Kirk Gibson’s memorable walk-off homer in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. The 31-year-old Turner recalled watching Gibson’s moment live at his grandmother’s house as a young child.
Thus far in the playoffs, Turner is 9-for-21 (.429) with two home runs and 10 RBI. He owns the third-best on-base plus slugging in postseason history (minimum 90 plate appearances) at 1.115 behind Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig (1.214 OPS for each).
For his career, Turner is slashing .377/.478/.636 with six doubles, four home runs and 22 RBI in 92 postseason plate appearances.
“I’m not saying he’s David Ortiz, but I played with David, and you’re talking about big spots and coming up big,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained.
“And J.T.’s that guy for us. He just has that pulse where he can just kind of keep his calm and stay within the strike zone. Also just not afraid to fail and just wants to be in that spot.”
Like Turner, Ortiz had a knack for postseason baseball over the course of his 20-season career. However, only the former was a journeyman for much of his career before signing with the Dodgers in 2014.
In 85 playoffs games, Ortiz hit .289/.404/.543 over 369 plate appearances with 22 doubles, two triples, 17 home runs and 61 RBI.
In addition to Ortiz, Turner has been likened to former Dodgers slugger Gary Sheffield in recent days on the TBS pregame show.
The panel, a trio of former Dodgers players in Pedro Martinez, Jimmy Rollins and Sheffield himself, have referred to Turner as “Little Sheff.”
For comparison, Sheffield hit .248/.401/.398 in 44 career postseason games with six doubles and six home runs over 202 plate appearances.
Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who was at the helm of the 1988 Dodgers, called Gibson and Turner “money players” who share similarities.
