PHILADELPHIA — Moments after they won a game Sunday they never should have won, the Phillies felt good. Maybe they were lucky. So be it. The smoke from the powerful machine next to Zack Wheeler’s locker still lingered in the clubhouse air. A few players gathered at Bryce Harper’s locker to watch a funny video. José Alvarado reveled in his oddly timed crotch thrust toward the Mets dugout. Everyone packed for a flight, and a glorious day off in Chicago awaited them after a 7-6 win over the Mets.
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Sure, the Phillies sent 10 men to the plate in the eighth inning and only one managed to collect a hit during a hilarious four-run rally, but they won.
“I don’t really care how we win as long as we win,” Trea Turner said. “Crazy one, kind of weird, but a lot of fun.”
Kevin Long, the veteran hitting coach tasked with leading a Phillies offense that has underperformed all season, saw a gaggle of reporters around Turner. Long joined the group and listened. He waited for his moment. Long has known Turner for years; he knows when to push the star shortstop and when to act as a therapist. So, it was interesting that Long chose now to unleash a wisecrack.
A reporter noted that Turner’s first-inning home run, hit at 107.6 mph, was one of his hardest-hit balls of the entire season.
“He hasn’t hit one that hard all year,” Long said from the back of the scrum.
Turner grinned.
“Jesus, Kevin,” he said.
Long wasn’t done. Turner, in that chaotic eighth inning, took a 2-2 slider to his back with the bases loaded. That scored the eventual winning run. But earlier in the at-bat, Turner had backed away when a pitch almost struck him.
“He should have let the first ball hit him, too,” Long said.
“You’re unbelievable,” Turner said.
They laughed. But this was good. They were rolling.
“Well,” Turner said, “when you want to leg kick all year and your hitting coach won’t help you leg kick, it’s hard to hit the ball hard. Then you get the leg kick right. We stayed late yesterday and hit a little bit, trying to find that leg kick. It’s something I’ve done my whole career. Two strikes, you kind of shorten up and whatnot, but leg kick I feel like it’s always helped me hit the ball a little harder.”
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Everyone has been waiting for Turner to resemble the dynamic player the Phillies secured for $300 million. Maybe this was a moment, buried in the madness of Sunday’s game. So, Long teased him because he knew it.
Turner felt like he had discovered something.
“That first at-bat,” Turner said, “that’s the kind of swing we’ve been looking for all year.”
And there it was.
Turner has never had a 75-game stretch like this in his career. He entered Sunday with a .298 on-base percentage. (His previous 75-game low was .308.) He began the day with a .375 slugging percentage. (His previous 75-game low was .389.) Every time he has a decent game it’s natural to wonder whether this is the point when everything clicks again. Maybe it’s something, maybe it’s not.
But Sunday was at least a reminder. Turner, even while mired in the worst slump of his life, is a game-changing presence. He walked in the fifth inning and stole second base. He stole third base on the next pitch, and Mets catcher Omar Narváez’s throw skipped into left field. Turner trotted home.
“Trea showed how he can score a run on his own,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “And he drove the ball today. It was really good.”
Turner was the first Phillies hitter with a homer, two runs scored and two stolen bases in the same game since Roman Quinn in 2019. Quinn did it in 15 innings that night. The bar is low for Turner to do things the Phillies haven’t seen consistently for years.
He’s been fighting his swing all season. He was not at his best a season ago when his strikeouts rose and his power dwindled. Those trends have only intensified in 2023. Earlier this month, Turner said Long implemented some slight changes to Turner’s “load” — the movements before he swings — that were mined through biomechanical analysis.
But the same bad habits persisted in the subsequent 11 games entering Sunday. Turner hit .214/.340/.238 in those 50 plate appearances.
The return of the leg kick, which happened over the weekend against the Mets, represents a significant adjustment. This was Turner before he saw his first pitch Thursday:
And this was Turner before his first-pitch homer Sunday afternoon:
Long is a staunch believer in eliminating most pre-swing movements. The less movement, Long has said, the better chance a batter has at being on time for all pitches. If a hitter has a long swing, Long will often have him adopt a two-strike approach for all counts. That means no leg kick and, instead, a toe tap or some other timing device. It’s designed to simplify things.
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It is just one method. Turner has used a leg kick before, including at times this season. (He hit a homer with the leg kick three weeks ago, but hadn’t used it much since.) With Long’s blessing, Turner tried it again Friday. He went 1-for-3 with a two-run single and a walk. He was 1-for-4 with a run-scoring single Saturday. Turner liked what he felt, but something was still missing. He asked Long to stick around for a postgame hitting session Saturday evening.
“Just a quick one,” Turner said. “But I knew there was something in there. I wanted to hit, talk it out. Twenty, 30 minutes. Nothing crazy. Can’t take too many swings, you’ll break.”
It immediately translated into results. The homer wasn’t Turner’s hardest-hit ball of the season, as Long joked, but it was the hardest he’s hit since May 10. That’s something.
The Phillies are desperate for power. They mustered only three extra-base hits Sunday. They have a mere 11 in their past eight games. They have hit one homer with a runner on base in the past two weeks.
The Mets gave them Sunday’s game and the series. Thunderstorms surrounded Citizens Bank Park all afternoon, but it never rained. The Phillies rallied with three walks, a single, two hit batters, and a double-play ball that resulted in zero outs. As they shook hands on the field, the grounds crew hustled. The field was covered by the tarp before Harry Kalas’ recorded rendition of “High Hopes” ended.
A few minutes later, it poured.
“I mean, it didn’t look good,” Thomson said. “But I thought we had some really good at-bats in the eighth inning. We got fortunate, too. But our guys kept grinding and got it done.”
They’ll remember Sunday for New York’s meltdown. But maybe — maybe — Turner will look back and remember it for a swing that ignited something.
(Top photo of Trea Turner’s first-inning homer against the Mets: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)