Patrick Reddington: Trea Turner's speed affects the whole game

Late in Sunday's 18-inning series finale with the Pittsburgh Pirates, with the game tied up at 1-1, Washington Nationals infielder Trea Turner hit a line drive leadoff single to left and tried to turn it into a double.

Turner was thrown out at second by left fielder Starling Marte in spite of the fact that the Pirates outfielder made a fairly nonchalant play and throw into second.

"Turner was cursed by his own speed," Dusty Baker told reporters after what ended up a 2-1 loss.

"If he didn't have speed, he wouldn't have even have thought about it. He probably won't make that mistake again, but when you've got speed, then you'll try things. That just wasn't the right time to try it.

"Especially with Marte out there, cause that guy ... he's a good player, he can throw."

"That wasn't a bad play," Baker continued. "I've seen Hank Aaron do that, big time. But like I said, he was a victim of his own speed."

Turner's speed was an asset in the series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Turner tripled for the first time this season on Tuesday night, driving in a run and scoring one to get the Nationals within three at 7-4 in what ended up an 8-4 loss.

In Wednesday's 8-1 win over L.A., Turner tripled again to bring Wilson Ramos around, then scored from third base when Danny Espinosa got picked off and caught in a rundown between first and second.

Turner waited for his opportunity and broke for home, beating the throw to plate on what was officially ruled a stolen base.

"I was impressed with Trea's baserunning, his speed," Baker told reporters in his postgame press conference.

"Was it yesterday he made the mistake? Sunday. That's like I said, when you have speed, you're more likely to make mistakes than a guy that doesn't have speed because now you're going to try it.

"It was fun to watch him play. Fun to see him run."

Turner did exactly what he's supposed to do when he saw Espinosa caught up between first and second.

"When he picked Danny off, you come down the line and then you wait to, if you have a left-handed first baseman, where he has to turn and throw, but they waited 'til the right time because he was a right-handed second baseman, but he also had to turn and throw home and make a perfect throw.

"That's exactly what you're supposed to do. It's when you break. If you hesitate, you're out, and if you leave too soon, they're you're out. He executed that play perfectly."

Baker has talked recently about the need to manufacture runs at times and not rely solely on the home run for offense.

Having the speed Turner provides is one way to do that. And Baker, he likes speed.

"I'm used to speed. I love speed. You heard me say that in spring training. Speed kills. And it does a lot of things and it creates a lot of mistakes. Not to talk about myself, but I signed on speed and I had fast cars and a lot of tickets. So I love speed."

He loves it, Baker explained before the series finale with the Dodgers, because of the impact speed as a weapon can have on the game.

"It affects everybody," Baker said. "It affects us when they have a speed guy over there.

"You can't bobble the ball. You rush on double plays. It distracts the pitcher when they're trying to pick him off and then he speeds up his delivery and then invariably they'll hang a breaking ball trying to speed up because his arms don't catch up. Or you've got to concentrate on two things and naturally you probably do neither very well. So it affects everybody.

"Plus the guys hitting behind him. Guys hitting behind him will probably get more fastballs away because the catcher has pride and will want to throw him out. It makes it easier to hit behind him.

"They're not going to throw a bunch of breaking balls in the dirt like they would if a guy couldn't run. Speed affects the whole game."

Patrick Reddington blogs about the Nationals for Federal Baseball and appears here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. Follow him on Twitter: @federalbaseball. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.