Turnbull strong in debut as Tigers end skid

DETROIT -- One day after Spencer Turnbull joked that he was getting Opening Day weather for his delayed season debut, the Tigers right-hander delivered a performance worthy of a season-opening assignment.

It was one outing on a chilly Wednesday evening at Comerica Park against an up-and-down Pirates offense, but Turnbull looked very much like a stopper who can help end a losing streak. Detroit’s 5-2 win not only salvaged a doubleheader split, it ended a five-game skid. It also presented another example why the Tigers are eventually headed for a six-man rotation to find a way to work in all of their starters.

While Turnbull understandably didn’t have his midseason form in his return from COVID-19, he didn’t look like had much rust, either. Nor did he look like a pitcher who hadn’t completed five innings in a game since last September, and spent a couple weeks recovering from COVID-19 before resuming his Spring Training early this month.

Thanks to a sharp slider he utilized to escape a first-inning jam, he didn’t have to come close to his pitch count to give the Tigers five solid innings.

“He told me before coming back up [from Class A Lakeland] that that was the thing he was concerned about the most,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He hadn’t felt great with his slider.”

The slider, Turnbull said, felt flat during what amounted to a rehab outing at the alternate training site in Toledo, Ohio, last week, his previous outing having been rained out after one inning in South Bend, Ind. A hip adjustment in his delivery helped regain the pitch's sharpness, but he still wasn’t feeling good with his mechanics early.

Both Pirates hits came consecutively in a 22-pitch opening inning that pushed Pittsburgh in front and frustrated Turnbull, following a two-out walk to Bryan Reynolds. Colin Moran’s bunt single against the shift and past Turnbull’s reach kept the inning alive for Erik González's RBI double, a pitch that Turnbull tried to elevate but left enough for González to poke to right.

Up came Gregory Polanco with the chance to add on. He fouled off Turnbull’s fastball and changeup, but chased a slider that Turnbull buried down and in against him.

That pitch set the tone for the rest of Turnbull’s outing. Turnbull threw five sliders in the inning, but ended up with nearly as many sliders (21) as four-seam fastballs (24). By contrast, he turned to his sinker just 10 times.

“First inning felt kind of iffy, didn’t have my command quite yet,” Turnbull said. “But once I settled in and figured out my leg lift, I locked it in from there.”

Turnbull used the slider to fan Philip Evans and Moran after Adam Frazier drew a walk to lead off the third inning. From there, Turnbull retired his final nine batters in order, including Frazier on a slider for Turnbull’s 62nd and final pitch of the night in a five-pitch fifth inning.

“It just hit me the way he got into the game,” Hinch said, “giving up a few runners and having a high pitch count in inning one, and for him to make an adjustment and really settle in.”

On a night when Hinch said Turnbull could go 75 pitches, he didn’t need that many to carry a lead into the late innings. He was at 62 pitches through five innings in a 1-1 game, supported by Niko Goodrum’s third-inning homer off Miguel Yajure in his Pirates debut.

Jonathan Schoop’s leadoff homer in the fifth gave Turnbull a well-earned lead, but two walks and two RBI hits -- one of them a double from Akil Baddoo scoring a sprinting Goodrum from first base and ending Baddoo’s 0-for-15 slump -- put Detroit in command.

Ironically, those hits also ended Turnbull’s night.

“He was in the game for the sixth inning until we had that long inning and extended our lead,” Hinch said. “I just didn’t want to have him sit there 30-45 minutes, so I took him out. He could’ve given us a little bit more, so I was really happy with how he bounced back from a tough first inning.”

Even at five innings, it was a breakthrough. At no point in his career had Turnbull completed the fifth in less than 70 pitches. If he can build off that, he has a chance to step up as a front-line starter for a team that could use a workhorse alongside left-hander Matthew Boyd.