Detroit Tigers pitcher Spencer Turnbull became the 6th pitcher in Detroit Tigers history to toss a no-hitter earlier this week, the 8th such occasion that a player wearing the Old English D has accomplished the historic feat.
He’ll take the mound tonight for the first time since his no-hitter, and will be facing the division rival Cleveland Indians. Of course, it was a whirlwind of media attention as well as family and friends, but skipper A.J. Hinch believes that Turnbull can handle the suddenly far brighter spotlight.
“He’s gotten more text messages in the last couple of days than he probably has in the last couple of years,” Hinch said. “It’s a heavy and taxing after-effect, just given the accomplishment that it was. He can handle it, but the faster that we can get to the next game and get him up and running the better, so we can get back into his normal routine.”
Of course, the objective tonight will be to get back into the win column after dropping two of three to the Kansas City Royals, not reflecting on his performance against Seattle last week.
“The no-hitter in Seattle doesn’t really help him face the Indians,” Hinch said. “I don’t think the Indians care too much about that fact that he no-hit the Mariners. You remind these guys that the game plan can be very different. The focus has to be the same, but I don’t really drag the no-hitter into the next series.”
Turnbull currently sports a 2.88 ERA so far on the season along with 31 strikeouts in 34 1/3 innings pitched. He knows that he’ll be able to take his stuff deeper into games as well as fine-tuning his mechanics to stay at the top of his game.
“Definitely have to get a lot more strike ones and keep the pitch count down,” Turnbull said. “Saying aggressive and not being afraid of contact. I don’t know I’ve pitched to contact necessarily, but I’m definitely not afraid of it. If I’m getting 0-1, 0-2, 1-2 to most hitters, I’m going to put myself in a much better chance for success consistently. The numbers just play out, and I definitely believe that now.
“Just being aggressive, getting ahead, trusting yourself. All the same things people have said for a while, but I’ve kind of taken a while to get there.”
The Tigers take on the Indians tonight at 7:10 PM EST at Comerica Park.
– – Quotes via Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press Link – –
