From 3-17 to baseball lore: Spencer Turnbull joins the no-hitter club

Detroit Tigers RHP Spencer Turnbull throws MLB’s fifth no-hitter of 2021, but this one might have been the most unlikely

No-hitters are so common in the 2021 Major League Baseball season it seems any pitcher is a threat to throw one in any given game. But this guy, who had the worst record in recent memory just two years ago? Not a chance.

That’s the thing about no-hitters: they pop up randomly. You never know whom good fortune is going to shine down upon one night. On Tuesday, that man happened to be Detroit Tigers right-hander Spencer Turnbull.

Turnbull tossed the eighth no-hitter in Tigers franchise history, and first since Justin Verlander a decade ago, shutting out the Seattle Mariners 5-0 at T-Mobile Park. Turnbull struck out nine and walked two on his way to becoming the fifth pitcher to throw a no-hitter already this season.

That in itself is unlikely. The fact that it was Turnbull, who suffered through a 3-17 record in 2019 and plays for a team that entered the day 11 games under .500, seemed unthinkable.

Turnbull has been a consistent presence the last three seasons in the starting rotation for some terrible Tigers teams. Two years ago, this club lost 114 games. Turnbull had the worst record of any starting pitcher in 23 years.

But that is ancient history. Turnbull is now a member of the most exclusive club for a starting pitcher. He’s the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter after losing at least 17 games within the previous two years since Scott Erickson in 1994. His record in 2019 is the worst by any pitcher who went on to throw a no-hitter just two years later since Don Larsen went 3-21 for the 1954 Baltimore Orioles.

He did it thanks to his new and improved fastball. Opponents are hitting just .170 off his four-seamer this season, 80 points lower than two years ago. Of the 117 pitches he threw at the Mariners on Tuesday, 50 were fastballs, including, most importantly, the last one.

The Mariners lineup has been historically inept so far in 2021. They had already been held hitless once already, by John Means on May 5. Just five days ago, Zach Plesac of the Indians took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against them. The Mariners are batting a collective .199 this season, which would be the worst for a team since 1884. The bottom four players in the lineup that opposed Turnbull were all batting below .200.

Turnbull faces his toughest test for the final out

If there’s one batter in the lineup that’s to be feared, though, it’s Mitch Haniger. Haniger had nearly spoiled Turnbull’s fun twice already; in the fourth inning, he sent a ball to center field that fell just shy of the 401-foot sign. Leading off the seventh, he hit a hard line drive right at Tigers third baseman Jeimer Candelario. So Turnbull didn’t want to have to face Haniger for the fourth time in the ninth inning, but that’s just what he got.

After issuing a leadoff walk to Jose Marmolejos, Turnbull struck out Sam Haggerty and got Jarred Kelenic to ground into a fielder’s choice. That brought up Haniger with two outs. Turnbull started him off with a 96 mph sinker, the fastest pitch he threw in the game. The second pitch was a slider on the outside corner that he called the best he threw all night. With a 0-2 count, Turnbull got him swinging on a 95 mph fastball, his career-high 19th swinging strike of the night, and was mobbed by his teammates on the mound.

“I had a gut feeling I was going to have to face him one more time. I was like, of course, I have to face him one more time,” Turnbull told Bally Sports Detroit after the game, his face covered in shaving cream. “But I felt good…he missed several of my four-seamers earlier in the game so I was like, he’s getting nothing but straight heat. I just threw it as hard as I could.”

Turnbull had never thrown a shutout before. He had never even lasted past the seventh inning in any of his first 49 career starts and had only thrown 100 pitches four other times. He’s not the type of pitcher you would expect to have such a dominating outing. Even he didn’t believe it before taking the mound.

“Honestly, warming up in the bullpen I felt terrible,” he said. “My mechanics were not clicking at all. I was like, alright, it’s going to be a mentality day. I’m just going to have to fake it until I make it today.”

He doesn’t have to fake it anymore. Turnbull will no longer be remembered as the pitcher who lost 17 games in a season. He’s now enshrined forever in baseball immortality as a member of the no-hit club, and that’s a pretty good legacy.