Justin Turner was out of the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night, and manager Dave Roberts indicated he could miss multiple games moving forward.
Turner has been dealing with a contusion in his left leg that was aggravated on a slide into second base during the sixth inning of the series opener at Petco Park. Turner sustained the minor injury on a foul ball that hit off his shin during a doubleheader against the Arizona Diamondbacks last week.
“There’s been some swelling in his left leg,” Roberts explained. “So I think that I can see him being down for the next couple of days, to be quite honest, to kind of get that swelling out.”
The current stretch will mark a second time this season the Dodgers have been a position player short due to nursing Turner back to health. He previously was out of the lineup at the end of July and into August because of a chest/abdominal issue.
The Dodgers initially decided against putting Turner on the 10-day injured list but eventually did on August 2 (backdated to July 30). He returned on August 9 and remained a regular starter from that point forward.
After getting off to a slow start this season, Turner began to find success in July and carried that into the second half. He’s enjoyed a particularly successful month of September, batting .342/.420/.605 with eight doubles, four home runs and 15 RBI over 21 games.
Although the swelling in Turner’s shin is not considered serious, it nonetheless is another injury for the Dodgers to monitor as they prepare for another run toward the World Series.
The bulk of Dodgers injuries at present time center around the pitching staff, with the likes of Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Blake Treinen hopeful to return for the National League Division Series.
Justin Turner voted Dodgers’ nominee for Roberto Clemente Award
Turner was selected as the Dodgers’ nominee for the 2022 Roberto Clemente Award, marking a fifth time in the past six seasons he is up the prestigious honor.
“It’s an absolute honor to be recognized by the Dodgers as the Roberto Clemente nominee for the fifth time,” Turner told DodgerBlue.com.
“Obviously Kourt and I take a lot of time in being heavily involved in the community and giving back to our fans, who we consider the best fans in baseball. To be mentioned in the same sentence as Roberto Clemente and be associated with No. 21 and philanthropy is probably one of the greatest awards and greatest recognitions you can receive.”
Fans can vote for the Roberto Clemente Award winner at mlb.com/clemente21 (English) and LasMayores.com/clemente21 (Spanish) through the end of the regular season on Wednesday, October 5. The winner from fan voting will count as one vote among those cast by the blue ribbon panel.
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