PHILADELPHIA -- Champagne celebrations in a baseball clubhouse are as fun as they look -- truthfully, they are more fun -- which is why Trea Turner couldn’t bear to watch the Phillies celebrate their second consecutive National League East title on Sept. 15 at Dodger Stadium.
“I was too jealous,” he said before the Phillies' 1-0 victory over the Marlins on Thursday at Citizens Bank Park.
Turner’s third season with the Phillies has been his best. He could win the franchise’s first batting title since 1958. He could finish in the top five for NL MVP. He could get votes for a Gold Glove Award. But Turner hasn’t played since Sept. 7, because of a strained right hamstring. So, when the Phillies flew to Los Angeles on Sept. 14 to begin a six-game road trip, Turner remained in Philadelphia to continue his rehab.
The next night, the Phillies clinched.
“I didn’t really watch the game until my dad texted me late,” Turner said. “It was probably like 1 a.m. [when] he texted me. And then I watched the end. And then I was like, ‘All right, I’ll watch.’ And then I saw everybody in the locker room, and I was like, ‘I can’t watch this.’ I had been there for 150 straight days and then, you know, obviously the one day I’m not there, they do that.
“Obviously, I’m happy. I’m a part of it. I get all that. But I didn’t want to watch it.”
But if Turner’s season finishes the way he hopes, he will participate in three more champagne celebrations.
Then, a parade.
Turner is still working his way back from the hamstring injury. He is getting close. He is hitting and fielding and running.
He said he is feeling good.
He could play before the end of the weekend. If he doesn’t, Turner and the Phillies said he will be in the lineup for Game 1 of the NL Division Series on Oct. 4.
“Today was probably my best day,” Turner said.
Turner is not running at 100 percent yet. He said he isn’t sure where he is percentage-wise. But he knows he ran confidently on Thursday for the first time since the injury.
That means something. Turner suffered a more serious strained left hamstring last season. He didn’t run at top speed for some time upon his return. He was tentative. He wasn’t confident.
“Last time, that was a tough thing,” Turner said. “The mental side, building that confidence. Like I said, today was a really good day because as you push it more and more, you wonder, ‘Can I do it? Can I do it?’ Today, I felt like there was less of that. Last time, I remember that being a big factor. I think the last [injury] was definitely way worse. I had a bigger hurdle to overcome there.”
If Turner returns to the Phillies’ lineup this weekend, he will be back in the leadoff spot, trying to lock down the franchise’s first batting title since Richie Ashburn (.350) edged Willie Mays (.347) in 1958.
Turner is batting .305 to lead the NL. The Cubs’ Nico Hoerner is second, batting .301 entering Thursday.
“Selfishly, it would be nice, obviously,” Turner said. “But like I said, the postseason is more important. Maybe there’s a decision there. Hopefully, it’s not a decision. Whether it’s, ‘I feel good,’ and I play, or, ‘I don’t feel good, let’s go to the postseason.’ But yeah, it’d be nice to win on a long season. That’s a cool award and a tough one to win.”
It is cool. It is difficult. It’s why Turner’s family has been giving him batting title updates, so he knows where he stands.
But the postseason is Turner’s focus. Would it be nice to be in the batter’s box this weekend and get a few hits to lock up the batting title? Of course. Would it be good to see live pitching in a real game before the postseason? Absolutely.
Would it be nice to test the hamstring? Sure.
But there’s no reason to push it, either. In other words, do a handful of plate appearances this weekend outweigh the benefit of maybe resting and recovering a few more days and getting 100 percent healthy and confident and ready for Game 1?
“That’s what we’re weighing every day,” Turner said.