It’s a lost season for Phillies’ Trea Turner, but the ball is still in his hands

PHILADELPHIA — A few months ago, when the Phillies were in Washington and authoring ridiculous late-game comebacks night after night, they started yelling at each other in the dugout. “Run the damn ball!” became a rallying cry, a way to symbolize how to chip away at the deficit. The Phillies, who started the year 9-19 and won Wednesday night to guarantee the franchise’s sixth straight winning season, have been grinding all season.A bunch of the Phillies’ All-Stars screamed it at Kyle Schwarber after one of his prodigious rounds during the Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park. Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs, naturally, had boxes of red T-shirts bearing the slogan delivered to the clubhouse.It never really stuck; the Phillies stumbled in late July, and the shirts were just another item for the time capsule of this weird season. But Trea Turner still has his. He’s one of the few who still wears the shirt, and in recent weeks, he has worn it every afternoon when he begins his workday.

Some of the Phillies are wearing shirts that say “Run The Damn Ball.”@SportsRadioWIP @KYWNewsradio pic.twitter.com/aoin1Rw0WY

— Dave Uram (@MrUram) July 24, 2026The $300 million shortstop is still here. Turner is never going to be back this season because it’s a lost year on so many levels. It is the worst season of his professional career. But he will keep batting second for a team with championship aspirations, and he will keep playing shortstop, and he will keep swinging because he knows no other way.Keep running the ball, maybe you’ll find a hole.“We’ve seen the games that Trea gets going,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said after an 11-7 win over the Houston Astros. “It’s like a different dynamic with our offense.”This is the promise and curse of Turner in 2026. He slapped a two-strike single that scored a run in the team’s high-flying third inning when the Phillies found some holes and put runners in motion. Turner stole second base right after his hit. He scored on a Bryce Harper single. Then, in the fifth inning, he slashed an opposite-field solo homer.