Spencer Turnbull gives Phillies six scoreless innings in 10-inning victory over Cardinals
Turnbull hasn't allowed a run in 11 innings over two starts since filling in for injured Taijuan Walker.
ST. LOUIS — At the end of a day marked by cosmic phenomena, Spencer Turnbull pulled off his own now-you-see-me, now-you-don’t magic.
It happened in the sixth inning Monday night. In his second turn as the Phillies’ fill-in No. 5 starter, Turnbull punctuated another scoreless start with a 94 mph sinker on the outside corner to freeze Cardinals slugger Nolan Arenado. Turnbull spun on his heel, clapped the back of his glove, and marched off the mound.
Turnbull doesn’t have to go back to the last solar eclipse — seven years ago, for the record — to find the last time he pitched this well. But after three years of injuries and setbacks and more injuries, it only feels like it.
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It really should’ve been enough, too, for the Phillies to eke out a victory in the opener of a three-game series hard by the Gateway Arch. Nothing comes easy, though. So, after Jeff Hoffman blew a two-run lead in the ninth inning, the Phillies scored twice in the 10th to emerge with a 5-3 victory.
After the Cardinals intentionally walked Bryce Harper, Alec Bohm broke the tie by shooting an RBI double down the left-field line against Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley. Bryson Stott followed with a sacrifice fly to score Harper, and Gregory Soto white-knuckled a save.
“I was really happy with the fight we had tonight,” said manager Rob Thomson, who was also pleased with three hits from scuffling Johan Rojas, including an RBI single.
But back to Turnbull.
Three weeks ago, he was ticketed for the bullpen as a long reliever. Then, Taijuan Walker came down with a shoulder injury near the end of spring training, and Turnbull was pressed into service as the depth starter that the Phillies signed for $2 million in mid-February.
Turnbull’s first two starts have been historic. He’s the fourth pitcher in Phillies history to begin a season with two scoreless starts of at least five innings, joining Grover Cleveland Alexander and Tom Seaton in 1913 and Vince Velasquez in 2016.
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“At the start of spring training, we weren’t really sure what he was going to do,” Thomson said. “Was he going to be a long man in our bullpen, a starter in triple A to give us depth? We ramped him up pretty quick at the end of spring training just with Tai’s injury. He’s done a great job for us.”
Turnbull fiddled with a sweeper last season with the Tigers and began throwing it more seriously in spring training. He mixed it with his fastball to keep the Cardinals hitters off balance.
“It’s definitely helping a lot,” Turnbull said. “It gives me an extra weapon. I think it’s my favorite weapon so far. It’s just something I’m able to trust and rely on if I need a swing and a miss, or if I need to attack with something, especially behind in the count. It’s helpful.”
Turnbull worked out of jams in the second and third innings. The latter was particularly impressive. He struck out Paul Goldschmidt on a fastball and went to his changeup to whiff Nolan Gorman to escape a runner-on-third, one-out situation.
The strikeout of Arenado finished a stretch in which Turnbull retired 12 of 13 batters. He said he probably had enough in the tank to pitch the seventh inning, but Thomson turned it over to the bullpen at 82 pitches because Turnbull is still stretching out as a starter.
For much of the game, Rojas accounted for most of the Phillies’ offense. He needed it, too. Badly. He was 1-for-22 with an infield single and two walks entering the game, and because the Phillies’ offense has not yet flexed its full muscle, the talk was already beginning about whether they must send Rojas to triple-A finishing school for a swing that was overhauled in the winter.
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It must have felt cathartic, then, when he drilled an elevated slider from Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas to left field for a double in the third inning. Exit velocity: 108.1 mph, the hardest-hit ball of his 68-game major-league career.
Rojas took a slider off the plate and punched it to right field in the fifth inning to drive in the game’s first run. Trea Turner knocked in the second with a one-out single.
Brandon Marsh tacked on a solo homer in the ninth before the Cardinals came back. But after that the Phillies made the lead reappear and improved to 2-0 in Turnbull’s starts.