Justin Turner’s heating up along with the weather, following Dustin Pedroia’s advice
The 38-year-old has been on a tear in June, hitting .333 with four home runs after his two-home run game on Friday.
Justin Turner is heating up as the weather in Boston begins to do the same, following the advice he received from a Red Sox icon.
The Red Sox’ third baseman’s first game against the Yankees at Fenway Park was one for the ages. He went 3-for-5, hitting a two-run homer in the second before hitting a grand slam in the third as he knocked in enough runs by himself for the Red Sox to beat the Yankees in Friday’s 15-5 win.
As Turner continued his hot streak on Friday, he recalled something Dustin Pedroia told him prior to the season after he signed with the Red Sox.
“He talked about the difficulties of hitting in the first two months,” Turner told reporters. “But if you can kind of keep your head above water, once the weather turns and it warms up, it’s a great place to hit.”
Turner has followed that advice so far. The 38-year-old, who has been a strong base hitter for much of his career, struggled a bit for his standards in his first month with the Red Sox, hitting .250 with a .708 OPS in April.
Turner slowly turned it up a bit in May. He hit .267 batting average and posted a .792 OPS. He also hit four home runs in May, doubling the number he hit in April.
So far, Turner has been one of the best hitters in baseball this June. He’s hitting .333 with a .791 OPS and already has four home runs in the month.
Turner’s numbers have been better at Fenway through the season. After hitting .295 at Fenway through the end of May, Turner’s batting average at home has climbed nearly .100 points as he’s hitting .394 at Fenway in June.
Friday night gave Turner what’s been a rare opportunity so far this season, which was the chance to hit in relatively warm weather. The temperature at first pitch was 73 degrees, which was just the Red Sox’ eighth game of playing at a temperature of 70 degrees or above at Fenway this season, via @RedSoxStats on Twitter.
In addition, Fenway Park has been the coldest ballpark in the majors so far this season. The average temperature for games played at Fenway this season is 55.6 degrees, according to Baseball Savant. For reference, the average temperature of games played at Angel Stadium (which has the 15th-hottest temperature of games played this season) which is 67.6 degrees.
Turner believes the change in weather benefitted him on Friday, particularly on his second-inning home run that went 367 feet to left center and over the Green Monster.
“Obviously this is one of those warmer nights and the wind was blowing out a little bit,” Turner said. “And you see a lot of those balls that were caught last month or early in the year going off the wall. I was lucky to get one over it. I don’t know if it helped the second one. I got that pretty good.”
Turner didn’t need much help from Mother Nature on his grand slam though, which was a 429-foot shot to center field that had a 105.6 exit velocity.
Still, summertime is about to be in full swing (at least if you look beyond the rainy conditions on Saturday), which should benefit hitters.
“Today it felt like summer, and you know how [Fenway] plays here in the summer,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters. The ball will carry. The guys did an outstanding job.”
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