Justin Turner arguably was the hottest hitter in the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup as the team got off to a 13-2 start this season. Then as the likes of Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Corey Seager, Will Smith and others went into prolonged slumps, Turner kept hitting.
Turner batted .330/.409/.596 with seven doubles, six home runs and 20 RBI through the first month of the season. That surpassed the three career homers Turner had ever hit in games played during March and April.
Turner carried his hot hitting into May before enduring his own slump as the likes of Muncy and Smith began to emerge from theirs and the team rebounded from a 5-15 stretch. While addressing the subject of mental health on the latest episode of “Holding Kourt Podcast,” Turner went into detail about his approach at the plate and explained how he knew a skid was on the horizon despite results suggesting otherwise:
“I’m able to step back and see the big picture. I know that hitting the ball hard more frequently is going to be more sustainable over a 162-game season. So I’ll take that 0-for-4, hitting four balls hard. … In the beginning of the year I was getting a lot of hits, but I was getting jammed a lot, hitting a lot of bloopers over the first baseman’s head, hitting a lot of weak ground balls the other way that were finding holes, which is fine. Those are going to happen and sometimes you have to take those hits. But I knew that my swing wasn’t in a great place.
“I was just getting results, and sure enough, when the game swings — it’s like a pendulum — it swings for the positive and swings back down the other way and you go through a little lull. The trick is trying to keep the lulls as short as possible. I’ve been going through a little funk and now I finally feel like I’m getting back to a place where I’m sustainable again and hitting balls hard.
“I’m not getting great results right now, but I’m taking way better at-bats than I was over the previous couple weeks. It’s a constant mental grind. What do you really want? Do you want to get hits, have results and see the numbers on the board? Or do you want to feel good and know you’re doing things the right way? For me personally, I want to feel good and know that I’m doing things the right way, and know that the hits will come from that.”
Turner has started to again find consistent success at the plate, hitting safely in six of hte past seven games. On the season he’s batting .275/.363/.461 with a 130 OPS+.
Roberts never worried about Turner
Much like the steady confidence Turner displays, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts downplayed having any concern over his third baseman’s recent skid.
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