Phillies’ Trea Turner avoids injury after fouling a pitch off his leg, but gets Sunday off vs. Twins

MINNEAPOLIS — Trea Turner watched the replay before he left the ballpark here Saturday night.

“It looked a lot worse than it was,” he said.

Indeed, Turner left the game — and the Phillies hoping for the best — after fouling a pitch off his upper right leg in the eighth inning of a 9-1 rout of the Twins. He writhed on the ground and and got to his feet with assistance from head athletic trainer Paul Buchheit.

But by the time the game was over, Turner was walking through the clubhouse without even a trace of a limp.

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Turner could have started Sunday, too, interim manager Don Mattingly said. But the Phillies weren’t pushing it with their star shortstop, whose legs make him one of the fastest players in the sport.

“I don’t like taking chances with his legs,” Mattingly said. “Because he [could] end up running differently, and then he’s got a hamstring or he’s got a hip or something going on. It’s just kind of a natural, easy decision with Trea, just because you want to be more cautious with him than some other guys.”

And so, Edmundo Sosa made a rare start at shortstop for the series finale against the Twins, with Turner available later in the game, according to Mattingly.

In rewatching the swing from Saturday night, Turner said he was bothered more by falling hard on his right ankle than actually fouling the pitch off his leg.

“I just couldn’t catch myself, couldn’t stop spinning and falling backwards,” Turner said. “I kind of like sat on my ankle. Watching a replay, I can see how the trainers and everyone’s like, ‘Oh no, that looked really bad.’”

Turner has turned around his season over the last two months. At his nadir, he was batting .216 with a .595 OPS on June 15. Since then, he was batting .292 with an .841 OPS and 10 homers in 49 games through Saturday night.

And after a rough stretch last month, his defense at shortstop has stabilized. Turner made four errors in four games — and six in 10 games — out of the All-Star break. But he has been error-free for 15 games.

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Even as the Phillies displaced three-fourths of the infield after trading for second baseman Luis Arraez, they left Turner at shortstop. Infield coach Bobby Dickerson has expressed confidence that the 33-year-old can stay at the position beyond this season.

“He’s got to put a chip on his shoulders and say, ‘The way to quiet everybody is to make plays, to do my job and do it right and do it good,’” Dickerson said on The Inquirer’s Phillies Extra podcast. “I always talk about shortstop as the quarterback position. ... We’ve got to get back to him leading as a shortstop — make plays, play it calm, let everybody breathe. That’s the only way he stays there.”

Said Mattingly: “It seems like he’s cleaned stuff up and had better results. I think he’s just kind of stayed after it and kept working. I know he’s been doing a lot of hand [exercises], activation stuff, but just kind of continuing to work. And it has been better.”

Reserve outfielder Derek Hill kept playing Saturday night after getting hit on the right hand while attempting to bunt in the fifth inning. But after the game he went for X-rays, which came back negative.

“I think he’s good,” said Mattingly, who expected Hill to be available off the bench. “I’m sure he’s sore.”

Hill, who plays center field against left-handed starting pitchers, has brought energy — highlight-reel defense and a few clutch hits, too — since being acquired in a trade with the White Sox for two minor leaguers on June 11. In 40 games through Saturday, he was batting .250 (21-for-84) and slugging .452 with five homers.

With a righty on the mound Sunday for the Twins, Justin Crawford started in center field.

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Backup catcher Rafael Marchan (knee) was scheduled to continue his triple-A assignment, but Lehigh Valley’s game got suspended by rain. The Phillies will gradually step up his workload behind the plate. “We’re trying to build him up to the nine-inning type of thing, and then we’ll kind of go from there,” Mattingly said. ... The Phillies flew home after the game to begin a six-game homestand against the Marlins and Cardinals. Cristopher Sánchez (15-4, 2.54 ERA) is scheduled to start at 6:40 p.m. Monday night against Marlins righty Janson Junk (6-7, 4.41).