Trea Turner’s post All-Star break reset shows results in Phillies’ 6-1 win over the Mets
Turner homered for the second time in as many games and finished with a three-run, three-hit game.
On his way home for the All-Star break last Sunday, Trea Turner spent some time pondering his season so far.
It has been a disappointment for the Phillies shortstop overall, on both sides of the ball. He was especially frustrated with his performance on the team’s last road trip before the break, where he felt like he was making the contact he wanted but the results weren’t following.
“Looking up expected numbers, and have the guys tell me what it looks like, and I’m getting half the production that I should be getting,” Turner said. “That’s just frustrating.”
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After winning the National League batting title in 2025, Turner entered the break with a subpar .236 average. He spent the plane ride mulling it over, and then tried to turn his brain off for the next three days he spent with his family.
Perhaps the reset did him some good at the plate. Turner’s 414-foot homer in the fifth inning of Saturday’s 6-1 win over the Mets was his second home run in as many games after the break. He also picked up two singles for a three-hit, three-run day.
“Obviously, he’s hit a couple balls out of the ballpark, but he’s kind of controlled the zone a little better, where he’s getting the ball in the strike zone,” said interim manager Don Mattingly.
There is room for improvement defensively, though. In the second inning, Turner botched a routine ground ball for his 14th error of the season. It also happened to be his second error in as many games after the break, after a misplay during Thursday’s series opener.
Turner committed just eight errors last season. He did extra drills with infield coach Bobby Dickerson ahead of Saturday’s game as he tries to recapture the improvements he made in the field last year.
“I just want to, I think, read the ball a little better,” Turner said. “I feel like physically, I feel good. I feel like I’m making moves that I want to make. It’s the last few mistakes I’ve made has just been judgment on a hop I think I’m going to get, and then the second or third hop’s not exactly what I envision, and I just put myself in a bad spot.”
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Saturday’s error did not wind up biting the Phillies much, as starter Jesús Luzardo struck out the next two batters to end the inning. Along with the back-to-back walks he issued in the first inning, though, it did cost Luzardo some pitches and he was lifted at 90 after the fifth.
A solo homer from Tyrone Taylor was just one of two hits the Mets managed against Luzardo, as he struck out seven. Juan Soto, one of the most disciplined hitters in the game with just a 12.7% strikeout rate, accounted for two of those.
The first time, Luzardo got Soto to chase his signature sweeper low and away in the third inning. The second time, in the fifth, he stunned Soto with a left-on-left changeup. Luzardo and Soto, who briefly coincided earlier in their careers in the Nationals minor league system, both smiled as they walked off the field.
“Hadn’t struck him out in a couple years, I think, so that was nice,” Luzardo said. “But finding any way to get him out is always a pleasant surprise.”
The Phillies capitalized on a sloppy Mets team that committed three errors on Saturday, but the win was a positive sign for their bats overall. They racked up 12 hits in a game that was delayed for just over 45 minutes due to heavy rain during the bottom of the seventh.
Kyle Schwarber gave the Phillies some breathing room with a towering 399-foot two-run blast in the first inning. And after Turner’s homer in the fifth, they continued to tack on. Schwarber drew a walk and advanced from first to third when catcher Francisco Alvarez’s pickoff attempt sailed high and wide. He then scored easily when Alec Bohm punched a single to left field.
A single from Edmundo Sosa and a J.T. Realmuto walk kept the line moving, but the rally ended when Derek Hill struck out to strand the bases loaded.
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“Had a couple innings there that type of innings that make you nervous,“ Mattingly said. ”Leadoff double, we don’t score. First and third, we don’t score. You look at those and you feel like sometimes they’re going to come back to haunt you. Today it didn’t. Obviously, we were able to keep pushing.”
The Phillies loaded the bases again in the sixth inning, and this time they capitalized. Bryson Stott tripled and Turner and Schwarber drew back-to-back walks against Mets right-hander Kodai Senga to put three on for Bryce Harper.
He got hold of Senga’s signature forkball for a two-run single that gave the Phillies’ bullpen a comfortable cushion.
Not that they needed much. Orion Kerkering had pitched a 1-2-3 sixth, striking out Carson Benge with a 97.8 mph fastball. José Alvarado sidestepped an infield single for a scoreless seventh, and Chase Shugart retired six consecutive Mets in the eighth and ninth to seal it.
Following the rain delay in the bottom of the seventh, Turner picked up his third hit of the day on an infield single against Mets reliever Xzavion Curry.
“Once you get some of those infield singles and hits to fall, you start having stuff to build on,” Turner said. “I feel like early on, I didn’t have anything to build on. I feel like in the last 30, 40 games if I have something wrong, I can fix it real quick, and hit the ball the other way or whatever it may be, and make the adjustments faster. And that’s the way I am.”
Phillies owner John Middleton spent months planning to host the city’s first All-Star Game in 30 years. Now that it’s over, he joined Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast, to recap his most memorable moments from the week. He also discussed the upcoming trade deadline and Field of Dreams Game in Iowa, and the future of the top of the Phillies organizational masthead. Watch here. Watch here.
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