not happening

Home runs dominate the highlight shows. There are a lot of homers in the major leagues these days and Quick Pitch, MLB Tonight, SportsCenter and the like are all over ’em. The unwitting supporting actors in the long-ball clips are the pitchers who surrender the homers. You see them grimace, hang their head, kick the dirt — stuff like that — while a hitter trots around the bases and a broadcaster shouts at the top of his lungs. Only three regular starters – those with 25 or more innings – have avoided this indignity in 2020: Max Fried, Zack Greinke and Spencer Turnbull, the former Madison Central High star who pitches for Detroit. Turnbull threw 5 2/3 shutout innings on Tuesday night as the Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs 7-1 at Comerica Park. In so doing, Turnbull not only improved his record to 3-2 – he was 3-17 in 2019 – and trimmed his ERA to 2.97, the tall right-hander stretched his streak of innings without allowing a home run to over 50. To find the last one, you have to go back to Sept. 12, 2019, when the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge took Turnbull deep. A FanGraphs analysis says Turnbull’s four-seam fastball can be one of the best in the game: “Some combination of spin, speed, and deception make it one of the hardest fastballs to make contact with, let alone square up.” Coming off a poor outing, Turnbull kept the Cubs in check by relaxing. “I focused a lot more on just slowing everything down mechanically, not trying to throw so hard,” he told the Detroit Free Press. “Less is more,” he added, is “gonna be my mantra for the rest of my life.” Keeping hitters in the yard and off the highlight clips fits right in with that.