Washington Nationals: Trea Turner down to the wire for hits leader

Entering the final weekend of the regular season, Trea Turner aims to finish the year as baseball’s hits leader.

With eight teams from each league making the playoffs, the final weekend of the season will provide lots of entertainment as the teams jockey for position. For the Washington Nationals, who were eliminated from the playoffs earlier in the week (mathematically, really they were eliminated mid-way through) they still can provide some entertainment as well. Trea Turner is deadlocked in a three-way tie for most hits in all of baseball.

Trea would probably be the first to tell you team accomplishments mean more than individual accolades. He also has a World Series ring on his finger to prove it. With the team already destined for futility, why not be proud of a personal feat.

With two days left on the baseball schedule, three players sit atop the hits list in the majors. Turner is joined by Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox and Marcell Ozuna of the Atlanta Braves.

Turner may have the advantage heading into the weekend as he will have three games left to add to his numbers, while the others have two. Both the White Sox and Braves have punched tickets to the postseason and may rest their starters as well, limiting the number of at-bats Abreu and Ozuna would get.

While Turner has been swinging a hot bat all season, his numbers were aided by the 16-game hitting streak he put together from August 14th-31st. During those 16 games he had 8 multi-hit games. In the last four games of the streak he had 15 hits in 20 at-bats.

That is where his batting average topped out, at .377. He has cooled some, though is still striking the ball at a .335 clip.

Aside from being tied for the major league lead in hits, Turner is also tied for the league lead in triples, and ranks in the top-ten in doubles and top-five in total bases. This truly has been a career year for Trea Turner at the plate.

Since you are unable to scoreboard watch this final weekend, keep an eye on the hit totals for these three guys, and try and cheer on our boy, Trea.