Turner earning legendary status
Game 1 blast latest heroics for Dodgers’ slugger who plays his best in post-season
LOS ANGELES— Every day he comes into Dodger Stadium, Justin Turner walks by a collection of trophies, photos, plaques, jerseys and magazine covers that highlight the franchise’s history.
It would be easy to pay no attention to all that memorabilia after seeing the items repeatedly over the past four seasons, but the Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman says he tries to soak in what they represent.
He might as well get comfortable among Dodgers legends, since he’s making a bid to join them.
For the third time this October, Turner delivered a home run to put Los Angeles ahead on the way to a win, this time in Tuesday’s 3-1 triumph over the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the World Series.
With the Astros’ Dallas Keuchel locked in a 1-1 duel with Clayton Kershaw and two outs in the sixth, Turner launched a two-run homer to left that provided the winning margin as the Dodgers took a major first step toward capturing their first championship since 1988. In the last 20 World Series, the team that won the opener claimed the title 17 times.
That it would be Turner providing the offensive heroics — while Kershaw tossed seven innings of threehit ball and struck out 11 — has become almost expected around these parts.
Nine days before, the red menace had authored one of the most memorable moments in recent Dodgers history when his three-run homer gave L.A. a 4-1 walk-off victory over the Chicago Cubs in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, ushering in the dethroning of the reigning champs.
In the opener of the division series, Turner cracked yet another threerun homer as the Dodgers took a 4-0 lead in the first inning and went on to sweep the Arizona Diamondbacks. The fans’ reaction to that blast was thunderous, but nothing like the roar let out by Tuesday’s sellout crowd of 54,253 when Turner took Keuchel deep.
“That was probably just as loud as it was on the walk-off homer,” Turner said. “This place was the most electric I’ve ever seen it, which it should be, the first World Series here in 29 years. Our fans are fired up. They’re pumped. The buzz around the city is crazy. And, obviously, we’re all excited to be able to let them enjoy this with us.”
Turner, a 32-year-old native of nearby Long Beach, has been responsible for much of the fun. After making his first all-star game on the final vote this year, Turner has had a post-season worthy of, say, someone like Duke Snider.
Turner’s14 RBI this post-season are now a franchise record, and his 26 over the past four Octobers tied Snider for the career post-season mark. Going back to Oct. 9, 2015, Turner has reached base in 24 of his last 25 games in the post-season, batting .371 in this one.
“It just seems like he’s on time to every pitch,” Dodgers pitcher Brandon McCarthy said.
“It’s like a parallel to watching Miguel Cabrera when he’s fully healthy. It feels like his barrel is where the ball is at all times, almost like it’s impossible to fool him or get him off it. JT just looks like, even with the leg kick and everything looking weird to get into it, the barrel is there all the time.”
Since joining the Dodgers in 2014, Turner has turned into an elite defender at third, a team leader in the clubhouse and one of the few hitters capable of taking Keuchel deep this year. The 2015 Cy Young Award winner yielded just 15 homers during the season.
“I wanted to throw it up and in. Within the strike zone, it was a good pitch,” Keuchel said. “The launch angle was really high. It wasn’t hit extremely hard by any means. It just got out.”