On Tuesday night, the Phillies unveiled their new plan for Spencer Turnbull: a piggyback, in this case, with Cristopher Sanchez.
Sanchez threw a gem in front of Turnbull, going 7 IP and allowing a single run. Turnbull entered the game in the 8th and shut things down for the win.
Before the Phillies clashed with the Blue Jays, manager Rob Thomson had a slightly different idea of how the night would go. “Going into the game we were kind of thinking like 5 [innings] and then go to Bull, but he [Sanchez] was just so efficient and so good that we kept just extending him”, said Thomson postgame.
Sanchez ran into trouble with 1 out in the 7th with runners on 2nd and 3rd. Turnbull had started to get warm in the 6th inning but Thomson wanted to bring Turnbull into a fresh inning.
“In my mind going into this situation, I thought fresh inning, especially the first time,” said Thomson.
Turnbull was prepared to go either way. “When I talked to Spencer today he said as long as I’m prepared and got my pre-game preparation and all the pitches I need in the bullpen, whatever situation I come in isn’t going to really bother me.”
What’s next for Phillies’ Spencer Turnbull?
Since Spencer Turnbull only threw 2 innings, he’ll be out of the pen again sooner than later. “He’ll probably have at least 2 days off,” said Thomson.
He won’t be locked into pitching behind Cristopher Sanchez.
We won’t constantly see Turnbull for 2 innings at a time. Rob Thomson expressed that they want to stretch out Turnbull further than that in the next 10-14 days.
What’s most likely to happen is that Turnbull will ideally pitch 3-4 innings every 4-5 days. He hasn’t thrown over 57 innings since 2019 due to injuries. The Phillies don’t want to put too much stress on his arm this early in the season.
Turnbull now has a 1.57 ERA in 34.1 IP. He’ll remain the first man up if a spot-start is needed. For now, he’ll do his best Bruce Sutter impression and close out games over 3-4 innings at a time.
Photo Credit: AP
