Phillies news and rumors 6/26: Kevin Long chirps Trea Turner during postgame scrum
For around a half hour after Saturday’s loss to the Mets, Trea Turner and hitting coach Kevin Long went to work in the cages.
It was a short session, but Turner wanted to craft an element to his swing that Long isn’t particularly crazy about: the leg kick. It goes against Long’s philosophy of sussing out excessive movements and eliminating them to be on time for the fastball.
But with the lack of power in the Phillies lineup and Turner’s curiosity, Long compromised and worked to help Turner. He’s flirted with the leg kick this season. Turner says it helps him hit the ball harder.
The work paid off. Turner’s home run was one of his hardest hit balls of the season (107.6 mph). More importantly, he felt like he found something.
“That’s the kind of swing I’ve been looking for all year,” Turner said.
A moment before that reveal, Long lingered behind a group of reporters, looking to make a snarky comment to get under Turner’s skin. Long loves to chirp and players, especially Turner, welcome the back-and-forth.
“He hasn’t hit one that hard all year,” Long interrupted as a reporter asked Turner about his first-inning home run.
Long also wanted to get on Turner for his last at-bat, the hit-by-pitch that scored the go-ahead run. He was hit on the fifth pitch, but Turner somehow got out of the way of the second pitch.
“Should’ve let the first ball hit him too.”
Turner shook his head.
“When you want to leg kick all year and your hitting coach won’t help you leg kick,” Turner scoffed.
“You get the leg kick right and we stayed late yesterday trying to find that leg kick. It’s something I’ve done my whole career.”
Must-read (or watch) Phillies content
- Here’s our own Nathan Ackerman’s recap of that crazy eighth inning.
- The New York Mets are a bunch of frauds and it was fun to watch them implode.
- Here are injury updates on Seranthony Domínguez, Andrew Painter and Noah Song.
- Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer checked in with Andrew Bellatti, who is pitching well for Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
- Mets beat writer Anthony DiComo wrote a really good story on Buck Showalter’s bullpen management in Sunday’s game.
- José Alvarado is hilarious.
Former Phillies Nation
- Nick Maton was demoted to Triple A on Sunday.
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