Trea Turner has a pregame chat with Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki to ‘pick his brain’
"Talking with him about his mindset and what he physically does, a lot of it kind of applied to me in my game," Turner said of his conversation with Ichiro before the Phillies' loss Tuesday night.
SEATTLE — Two years ago, when the Phillies last played here, Trea Turner heard that Ichiro Suzuki was at the games but never got to meet him.
Turner wasn’t going to miss another chance.
Before Tuesday night’s game, a 4-1 Phillies loss, Turner chatted with Suzuki, the Mariners legend and Hall of Fame hitting machine with 3,089 major-league knocks after coming over from Japan and a statue outside the home-plate entrance to T-Mobile Park.
And Turner came armed with specific questions.
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“How do you hit the ball the other way?”
“What are your thoughts, your approaches in certain situations?”
“If you’re doing this wrong, what would you do?”
“Just all sorts of stuff,” Turner said. “It was just great being able to pick his brain. I really enjoyed it.”
Coincidentally, Turner’s chat with one of the most gifted hitters on two continents came at a time when he’s hitless in 13 at-bats, part of a 4-for-25 tailspin.
The root of the problem: “I’ve been trying to hit the ball the other way [to right field] and stopped flying open.” After working with hitting coach Kevin Long, he said he made an adjustment Tuesday night that, despite going 0-for-4 again, represented “progress.”
“I didn’t get the results I wanted,” Turner said. “But I feel like today was good.”
Especially considering how it started.
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Turner grew up in South Florida as a fan of Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr. He didn’t watch Ichiro as often — “Maybe it’s more of like a West Coast-East Coast type deal,” he said — but noted that he’s been told there are similarities in their hitting styles.
“In the sense that he didn’t walk a lot, he wanted to hit, he hit the ball all over the field, could hit it out of the park sometimes,” Turner said. “So, talking with him about his mindset and what he physically does, a lot of it kind of applied to me in my game. It was kind of nice just hearing him, trying to ask him as many questions as possible.
“Growing up watching him, I maybe probably didn’t appreciate him as much as I should have as a kid. I loved Griffey and Jeter. But his career is incredible. I knew he was a really good player, but I wish I got a chance to watch him a little bit more.”
Turner isn’t the only Phillies player to meet Ichiro this week. Rookie center fielder Justin Crawford was introduced to him Monday by his cousin, Mariners infielder J.P. Crawford.
Extra bases
Bryce Harper went 2-for-4 Tuesday and extended his career-long on-base streak to 28 games, tying the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong for the fourth-longest in the majors this season. … J.P. Crawford returned to the Mariners’ lineup after missing 18 games with an inflamed left wrist. The Phillies’ first-round pick in 2013 was traded to Seattle after the 2018 season for infielder Jean Segura. … Jesús Luzardo (11-5, 3.35 ERA) is scheduled to start the matinee series finale Wednesday against Mariners righty Bryan Woo (9-8, 4.10).
