Trea Turner, Phillies lose sloppy first game against Guardians

Final Score: Guardians 3, Phillies 1

For as great as Trea Turner has been at the plate in 2024, the struggles he had in the field in 2023 have carried over to his second season with the Philadelphia Phillies. The defensive miscues reared their ugly head for Turner in Friday night’s loss to the Cleveland Guardians, with Bryce Harper and Cristopher Sánchez also struggling defensively in a sloppy series opener.

Turner had one of the two errors for the Phillies in Friday’s loss, but he had a series of questionable plays beyond that. The three-time All-Star entered the evening with -9 defensive runs saved and -5 outs above average at shortstop. He finished the game with 12 errors on the season, which comes despite a six-week absence with a left hamstring strain.

Of course, Turner, when healthy, has been about as good of a hitter as anyone in the sport this season. That doesn’t include Friday’s game, though, as he went 0-for-4, including popping out to shortstop to end the bottom of the seventh, stranding runners on the corners.

Former Phillie Ben Lively has been one of baseball’s best stories in 2024. He allowed just three hits and one run over six innings Friday, while striking out six and walking two. He now has a 3.44 ERA over 99 1/3 innings pitched the season, an out-of-the-blue breakout campaign for the 32-year-old.

And while the Phillies bullpen looked back on track Friday evening, the best bullpen in baseball shut their offense down in relief of Lively, with All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase shutting the door in the ninth.

It was an ugly way for Turner and the Phillies to lose Friday. They are still 64-39, but are a much more pedestrian 9-10 in July.

Highlights

• Bryce Harper and Trea Turner combined for three brutal plays in the field over the first two innings of the game. The first of which came when Cristopher Sánchez seemingly had Ángel Martínez picked off. However, instead of firing to Bryson Stott at second base, Harper tried to chase down Martínez. By the time he realized he wasn’t going to catch him, he flipped to Turner, who wasn’t really covering second base. Martínez was credited with a stolen base. Two batters later, David Fry plated Martínez with a single.

• The poor fielding continued in the top of the fourth inning. Andrés Giménez was nearly picked off at first base, but Sánchez made a high throw to Stott at second base and Giménez reached second. Giménez scored when Bo Naylor bunted to the left of the mound, and Sánchez threw home (unsuccessfully), rather than just taking the out at first base.

• Before the top of the fourth inning was out, Martínez brought Brayan Rocchio home with an RBI single to increase Cleveland’s lead to 3-0.

• Bryson Stott homered into the second deck off of Lively in the bottom of the fifth inning, a solo shot.

• As noted above, Turner popped up to strand a runner at third base to end the seventh inning.

Ticket IQ Next Game

• Saturday, July 27 vs. Guardians at 6:05 ET
• TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia
• Radio: SportsRadio 94 WIP
• Spanish Radio: WTTM 1680

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