October Red strikes again for Dodgers
The bushy beard, the pine tar stain on the back of his No. 10 Dodgers jersey and all of those postseason hits. That’s October Red.
Justin Turner is one of the constants for the Dodgers during their third World Series in four years, and his Duke Snider-matching homer in the first inning of Game 3 gave the Dodgers a lead they would not relinquish has them halfway to their first championship since 1988. A month shy of turning 36, Turner also scored after a two-out double and showed off a his glove.
“He’s the heart and soul of this team, he’s been the heart and soul,” said catcher Austin Barnes, who bunted home a run and also homered. “JT’s a huge player for us. We rely on him all of the time.”
That stain created by aggressive practice swings may cover half of his name on his back, but Turner is a very familiar figure in October — this was his 15th World Series game. Turner, who earlier this month passed Steve Garvey for themost postseason hits in franchise history, hit a solo shot in the first off Charlie Morton to match the 11 homers hit by Snider — the Hall of Fame center fielder who played for Dodgers World Series championship teams in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Turner’s 40 RBIs are Dodgers postseason record.
“It means I’ve had the opportunity to play on a lot of really good baseball teams, we’ve played deep in October, and I’ve gotten a lot of ABs,” Turner said. “Obviously it’s something that I don’t think I ever thought about, or ever crossed my mind, but something’s pretty cool that I can talk about when we’re done playing finish this off and win two more games,” he said.