"Perfect" Turner savors first career game-winning homer

There are the base hits, 77 of them already in only 223 at-bats, good for a .345 batting average that would stand right alongside league leader Daniel Murphy if only he had been in the big leagues all season.

There are the stolen bases (21 of them) and the runs (39 of them) in only 52 games, evidence of his blazing speed.

There is the surprisingly smooth play in center field, a position that was completely foreign to him until this summer, when the Nationals realized they were desperate for help out there and asked the 23-year-old rookie infielder to take a crash course.

And then there are the home runs, eight of them now after he twice went deep tonight, including the dramatic, walk-off blast to center field that gave the Nationals a thrilling 5-4 victory over the Phillies.

Put all of that together, and Trea Turner has proven to be an electric performer for the Nationals, a vital cog on a roster full of stars that is creeping closer to a division title.

But beyond the mere results, there also is the process. And that, more than all the stats, is what has impressed veteran teammates the most about this rookie who has taken Washington by storm in the last two months.

"He's a gamer, and he's a fighter," Tanner Roark said. "And he's perfect."

For the record, Turner is not perfect. He has made outs in 65.5 percent of his at-bats. He has been caught stealing three times (though all only with the aid of instant replay). He even misplayed a ball in center field the other night.

But he sure is doing everything the Nationals could reasonably ask of him right now ... and then some.

"The sky's the limit," manager Dusty Baker said. "He's probably doing some things that even amaze himself. But just let it flow and let it be."

Whatever Turner is doing, he doesn't intend to stop doing it anytime soon. Among all the traits he has displayed in his short time here, his composure and professionalism stand out, making him appear like someone with far more experience at this level.

Consider his game-winning at-bat. As awe-inspiring as the 440-foot homer to straightaway center field was, the five two-strike pitches from Phillies reliever Frank Herrmann he fouled off immediately before that elevated the at-bat to levels typically reserved on this team only for Jayson Werth.

"I felt like I was seeing the ball good," Turner said. "That last at bat, taking some good swings, just missing some pitches here and there. Then I finally got a pitch up in the zone, put the barrel on it, and I'm still kind of laughing at how it ended up over the fence and all that, but it felt good."

Turner can be self-deprecating when discussing his surprise power, but he also knows this is legit. He has, believe it or not, hit as many home runs that traveled at least 440 feet as David Ortiz, more than National League MVP candidate Anthony Rizzo, according to MLB's Statcast system.

"You guys are going to be way more surprised than I am because I know what I've done over the course of the last however many years," said the 185-pounder. "I'm not a power-lifter or anything like that, but I feel like I'm stronger than I look. It's a matter of mechanics at the plate. I think the strength is there, it's just a matter of making your swing better and squaring up the ball."

Turner squared it up twice tonight. He pounced on the first pitch he saw from Colton Murray in the bottom of the seventh, sending the ball flying 402 feet down the left field line for the two-run homer that gave the Nationals what seemed like a comfortable 4-1 lead.

But after rookie reliever Koda Glover served up a three-run shot to Cameron Rupp in the top of the eighth, Turner found himself at the plate again, needing to at least reach base with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and avoid extra innings.

Turner had never hit a walk-off homer in his life. Not as a professional. Not in college. Not in high school. Not in Little League. He believes he only delivered a walk-off hit of any type once before, when he was 9 years old.

"Trust me, I think about it every single time I get the opportunity," he admitted. "Like, 'This is going to be it!' I think a couple nights ago in that extra-inning game, I had an at-bat and I was like, 'Alright, this is going to be it! This is going to be it!' "

It wasn't, of course. Turner had to wait until tonight to do it. Once he did - once he watched the ball soar over the center field wall, once he rounded the bases to a thunderous roar from the crowd, once he reached the plate and found a mass of teammates waiting to pounce on him, once he took a pounding from those teammates and once he took a Gatorade shower from Anthony Rendon - only then did the magnitude of it all hit home.

"I asked myself, 'Did that really happen?' " he said. "Because everybody wants to hit a home run to walk off, get a walk-off win. But I guess seldom does it happen, at least for me. It was kind of funny-slash-exciting. Try to cherish that as much as I can."