ATLANTA — The jokes were flying around the Nationals’ clubhouse Tuesday night, with teammates taking every opportunity they could to turn Trea Turner’s first career homer into an excuse to make fun of his boyish looks and physique.
“For 135 pounds soaking wet, he hit that ball a long way,” Ian Desmond cracked.
“He might look like he’s 15, but he can play at this level,” Tanner Roark added.
Indeed, Turner doesn’t appear at first glance like someone capable of hitting a major-league pitch 392 feet to left-center field. But there he was, doing just that, in the top of the sixth of the Nationals’ 2-1 loss to the Braves.