Phillies drop struggling Trea Turner to seventh in the batting order vs. Pirates

PITTSBURGH — After yet another rough night at the plate Friday — 0-for-5, including a strikeout and grounding into a double play — Trea Turner met with Phillies manager Rob Thomson.

What happened next came as no surprise.

The time had come, Thomson explained, to move Turner down in the order. The struggling shortstop didn’t object. And so, when the Phillies faced the Pirates on Saturday night, Turner batted seventh for the first time since July 25, 2018, with the Washington Nationals.

”I’m here to play baseball. I don’t make the lineup,” Turner said. “It’s not part of my job. I want to do my job better. If I did my job better, then I wouldn’t have that conversation.”

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Entering Saturday night, Turner was hitless in 12 at-bats. He went 1-for-3 with a walk but also struck out with the bases loaded in the Phillies’ 7-6 loss to the Pirates.

In his last nine games, Turner is 5-for-35. He’s 12-for-57 since the All-Star break.

“Let him breathe a little bit, let him relax,” Thomson said. “He’s trying to do too much. I think he understood. He’s disappointed, not because he’s hitting seventh. Just because he’s not producing like he expects himself to do.”

The Phillies keep waiting for Turner to get hot. Instead, he was batting .242 with a .673 OPS. He has never finished a full season below .271 and .760.

Thomson hoped that giving Turner a game off Wednesday, before the Phillies’ day off Thursday, would jumpstart him at the plate. It didn’t work.

“It could help the team maybe,” Turner said of moving down. “Me personally, I’ve just got to put utogether good at-bats and swing at good pitches and find that swing and kind of build some momentum. I don’t think it matters where I hit. But if Topper thinks it’s good for the team, I’m all for it.”

Turner did make a sensational sliding play and strong throw on an up-the-middle grounder Friday night. Juxtaposed against his two-error game earlier in the week, it appeared to be a sign to Thomson that the two-day mental break helped to clear Turner’s head, even if it didn’t immediately lead to any hits.

“That was part of the conversation, really,” Thomson said. “While you’re going through this [slump] and we’re correcting these things, just make sure that it doesn’t affect your defense or it doesn’t affect your aggressiveness on the bases.”

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Nick Castellanos moved into the No. 2 spot, even though he was in a 3-for-28 funk with 11 strikeouts and went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts Thomson hopes that batting in front of Bryce Harper will cause Castellanos to see more strikes.

Maybe it will work. Thomson prefers to keep the lineup static. But he also believes strongly that the Phillies’ best lineup has Turner in the two-hole.

“When I think he’s got his stroke back and he’s comfortable, we’ll look at him [in the No. 2 spot again],” Thomson said. “Because I’ve said all along, our best lineup is when he’s hitting and he’s hitting in the two spot. I just think we’ll produce the most runs that way.”

The decision to designate Noah Song for assignment was mostly about the Rule 5 righty’s not being ready to pitch in the majors after a three-year layoff while serving in the Navy. But it also could be viewed as a vote of confidence for long man Dylan Covey, who has allowed two runs in his last 10 innings, including a rare high-leverage spot in the eighth inning Saturday night. He’s working on a slider, according to Thomson, and the Phillies are encouraged. “He’s really thrown the ball well,” Thomson said. “He’s getting quick outs and soft contact.” ... Cristopher Sánchez (0-3, 2.98 ERA) is scheduled to start Sunday’s series finale against Pirates lefty Rich Hill (7-10, 4.82).