Amid struggles, Turner takes ownership for Phils' 12-inning loss

MIAMI -- You could have heard a pin drop in the Phillies' clubhouse late Wednesday night at loanDepot park.

Instead, you heard the crack from Trea Turner’s bat. He entered the batting cage almost immediately following the Phils’ crushing 12-inning 9-8 loss to the Marlins. He hit until midnight, more than an hour after the game ended.

Turner felt responsible for the loss.

The Phillies had watched their five-run lead in the sixth inning whittled to one in the eighth before Gregory Soto allowed a game-tying home run in the ninth to send the game to extra innings. The Phils scored twice in the 10th and once in the 11th, only to be matched by Miami each time.

“Obviously, I’m the reason why we lost that game,” Turner said.

Turner could not catch a hard-hit ground ball with a runner on second and two outs in the 11th, which allowed the tying run to score. If he caught the ball, he likely would have thrown out Josh Bell at first base to end the game. If Turner had knocked down the ball, there was no chance Marlins catcher Jacob Stallings would have scored.

Offensively, Turner went 0-for-5 with a walk and 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.

So, he hit.

Turner left the batting cage in full uniform for only a couple minutes to speak with reporters. Questions answered, he returned to the cage to work.

Thwack.

Thwack.

“Just frustrated,” Turner said. “I only know one thing and that’s keep working. Hindsight is 20-20, right? Make that play, the game is over.”

Turner’s struggles this season are well documented. He is batting .237 with 10 home runs, 34 RBIs and a .662 OPS. Phillies manager Rob Thomson did not play Turner on July 26 against the Orioles to give him two consecutive days off. Then Thomson dropped him from second to seventh in the lineup on Saturday in Pittsburgh.

“Anytime a guy goes through struggles, you care about him,” Thomson said. “You worry about him a little bit. But they have to fight out of it. You know? You have to fight through it.”

So no more breaks?

“We just sat him the other day,” Thomson said. “I mean, he has to fight out of it. Maybe that's harsh to say. I don't know. But he will. I firmly believe that.”

That wasn’t the only problem on Wednesday night. The Phillies wanted to stay away from closer Craig Kimbrel because he is pitching too much. He entered Wednesday having pitched three of the previous five days and he is on pace to pitch 73 games and 70 innings, which would be his most since he pitched 79 games and 77 innings in his first full season in 2011.

Kimbrel was 23 then. He is 35 now.

“Just looking at the amount of pitches and things like that, it puts a red flag up there for me,” Thomson said.

So the Phillies asked Matt Strahm to pitch the eighth and Soto to pitch the ninth. But with the Phillies holding a two-run lead in the 10th, they had no choice but to pitch Kimbrel.

“I feel great,” Kimbrel said. “My job is to come into this clubhouse every day and help this team win. We’ve been playing a lot of close ballgames lately. It’s a close ballgame, I want the ball. I want to help this team win. We’ve got to win games to get to the playoffs. Taking days off isn’t something I feel like I can do.”

Kimbrel intentionally dropped the ball to issue a balk to start the 10th and send the automatic runner to third. It is something Kimbrel has done in the past with a two- or three-run lead. It gets the runner off second base so he cannot relay signs to the batter.

“My job there is not to let them score two,” Kimbrel said. “I don’t want to give up a home run.”

But the Phillies felt the Marlins picked up something on Kimbrel anyway. Marlins batters seemed to know which pitch was coming. Maybe it was Marlins hitting coach Brant Brown, who was with Kimbrel last season with the Dodgers.

“If they were, I was doing something wrong,” Kimbrel said. “That’s on me to hide my pitches a little better. If they feel comfortable relaying it, that means I’m not doing a very good job.

“If we are giving stuff away -- if we are -- we’re going to find it and take care of it.”

Kimbrel allowed two runs to tie the game. Dylan Covey nearly had the first save of his career in the 11th, but Turner missed the ball.

“I know the ballplayer Trea is,” Kimbrel said. “Everybody goes through hard times. I’ve been through plenty of hard times in this game. You just find your way through. None of us are worried about Trea.”