Trea Turner is heating up, but still struggling defensively. (Brendan Baldwin/Phillies Nation)

PHILADELPHIA — Trea Turner was all over this game, good and bad.

He had his best day at the plate this year, going 3-for-5 with two home runs and a double in a 10-7 Phillies win. Through four games in the second half, Turner is 8-for-16 with six extra-base hits.

Turner going on an incredible run at the plate in the second half could be transformative for a Phillies lineup searching for more consistency from hitters outside of its three All-Stars: Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Brandon Marsh.

“When Trea goes, we go, right?” interim manager Don Mattingly said postgame. “When Trea is getting on base and doing his thing, it changes our club. Trea’s obviously swinging it good right now.”

Turner also had one of his worst days defensively at shortstop. The official scorer dinged Turner for only one error, but three other misplays also led to extended innings.

Fittingly, the final play of the night was a routine grounder to shortstop. The crowd at CBP roared when the ball landed in Turner’s glove. Phillies fans weren’t the only ones letting Turner hear it: His teammates mocked him too.

“Just a ridiculous game in general by me,” Turner said postgame. “I’m just happy we got the win, but just a roller coaster, up, down, up, down. When you do things like that or have games like that, sometimes, you just have to laugh about it. They were giving me a hard time. It was good to kind of get some shit from them.”

What’s going on with Turner defensively? After the best season of his career at shortstop in 2025, he has 15 errors at the position. Of those 15 errors, nine have come over the last five weeks. He says he is healthy, though he did deal with hamstring tightness before the break that limited his ability to sprint. He has only three stolen bases in his last 33 games.

“I couldn’t tell you, you know,” Turner said. “It happens, keep working and get through it.”

One of those misplays came in the top of the sixth. With Andy Pages at the plate and Orion Kerkering on the mound, Turner came running in for a ball just over Kerkering’s head. Turner attempted to scoop up the ball on the run, but it bounced off the end of his glove. It was ruled a base hit, but Turner should have made the play. A run scored to cut the Phillies’ lead over the Dodgers to one.

But Turner more than made up for it a half inning later with a three-run home run that hooked fair down the left-field line to make it 8-3. It was the 200th home run of his career. It’s a great accomplishment for someone like Turner, who was not projected to be as big of a power threat as he is now.

“I don’t think early in my career, anybody thought I would hit 200 homers,” Turner said. “I think it’s kind of cool from an evolution standpoint of where I was when I was younger and what kind of hitter I was to being able to do that at the highest level.”

The Phillies will ride this wave of production from Turner for as long as they possibly can. The team, at least for now, is not considering moving him off of shortstop. Those uncomfortable questions will be saved for the offseason.

They will proudly live and die with Turner.

“Trea’s our guy,” Mattingly said. “Trea works every day, so it’s not like Trea is out there and doesn’t care about defense. Trea cares about his defense, he wants to make plays. He’s working every day, so we ride with Trea.”

Defense has been a glaring issue all year for the Phillies. They entered Monday dead last as a team in defensive runs saved at -35. The only position players on the roster that grade out positively in the metric are Marsh, Rafael Marchan and Derek Hill.

They entered the day with a .326 batting average on balls in play against, the worst in MLB. Turner, Harper and Alec Bohm are all having rough seasons defensively. Depending on what metrics you value, you can add Bryson Stott to that mix, though he is clearly still the best defensive starting infielder on the team.

Only one team, the 2021 Boston Red Sox, has made the postseason with a BABIP against in the .320s. No team with a .326 BABIP or higher has ever finished above .500.

Somehow, the Phillies are 11 games over .500 and comfortably hold a wild card spot with a top-heavy offense and rotation, a short bullpen and potentially a historically bad defense. It doesn’t make sense, but it has worked so far.

“I trust Trea,” Mattingly said. “Honestly, I trust all of our guys. Trea is going to make some great plays, there’s going to be errors with everybody. Again, Trea works. So he’s out there every day working on the ground balls, working on his hands, all that type of stuff. As long as Trea works, we ride with Trea.”