A little over a week before Dodgers third baseman Juan Uribe returned from the disabled list for a strained hamstring, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was asked if he was planning to stay with the hot bat of replacement third baseman Justin Turner even when Uribe returned.

“No, we’ll get back to Juan,” Mattingly said. “We’re still not there yet, I’m not really worried about it. With JT we know that I gotta be careful with him as far as too many days in a row. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem [going with Uribe] and not JT.”

Although it is a bit confusing exactly why Mattingly needs to “be careful” with Turner, what isn’t confusing is that Turner is the only Dodger player hitting over .300 right now – .320 to be exact; and the sample size isn’t all that small either. With 20 games remaining, Turner has had a total of 287 plate appearances and also leads the team with his .387 on-base percentage. He has also hit five home runs and driven in 33 runs. Simply put, when Mattingly has Justin Turner sitting on the bench, he does not have his best nine out there and he is seriously handicapping his team.

Oh sure, Turner is great off the bench in a crucial pinch hitting role late in games, as he was last night when he came up in the 8th inning of a 2-2 ballgame and moved the eventual winning run into scoring position with a clutch fielder’s choice, but had Turner been in the game the entire night perhaps the game wouldn’t have been tied and starting pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu would have picked up his 15th win of the season that he rightfully deserved.

Turner’s hard ground ball to third base moved the eventual winning run into scoring position.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In his last 10 games (including pinch hitting), Turner is 11 for 33 (.333) with one home run and four RBIs, whereas Uribe is 11 for 37 (.297) with one home run and six RBIs in his last 10 games . Uribe also happens to currently be the third best hitter on the team behind Yasiel Puig and Turner. As such, it would also be foolish to keep Uribe’s bat out of the everyday lineup as well. But why not find a way to keep both guys in there? This can be accomplished by utilizing Turner to spell Dee Gordon at second base, Hanley Ramirez at shortstop and even Juan Uribe at third base every few days.

This is certainly not to downplay the importance of having a productive pinch hitter like Turner available in key situations, but had the extremely popular 29-year-old redhead been in the game somewhere (2B, 3B, SS) perhaps the game wouldn’t have been tied when Turner was called upon to pinch hit.

As sure as the sun rises every day and because the Dodgers went on to win Saturday night’s game 5-2 over the Diamondbacks, this thought will or probably has already been forgotten – if it even entered Mattingly’s mind in the first place. But one thing is certain – you can bet it is in the mind of every Dodger fan whenever Turner’s name is not in the starting lineup.

If ever there were a time (and need) for Mattingly to go with the hot hand, it is right now – and nobody has a hotter hand than Justin Turner. Nobody.