Detroit Tigers: Spencer Turnbull, Jake Rogers highlight week

Erie SeaWolves

A 4-2 week for the SeaWolves brought their season record to 28-36. Erie remains in the basement in the Eastern League’s Western Division.

Turnbull Dominates

Spencer Turnbull earned his second Eastern League Pitcher of the Week award, tossing a gem Sunday against Reading (Philadelphia). The righty fired his first complete game shutout as a pro, yielding four hits while fanning 11.

Turnbull entered 2018 looking to build off of the four mediocre starts he made for Erie near the end of last season. Thus far, he’s turned in mixed results. On the one hand, his strikeout numbers have been the best of his career. With 72 strikeouts in 63.0 innings, Turnbull boasts the best strikeout rate he’s had as a pro, at 10.3/9.

On the other hand, he’s allowed more walks and hits this year. That isn’t automatically a cause of concern, however. When making the jump to a new level, taking time to adjust to the higher level of competition is very common. Let’s hope this is the start of Turnbull turning the corner at the Double-A level.

Turnbull’s award is the sixth Pitcher of the Week award claimed by a member of the Detroit Tigers organization. Erie leads the system with three, two from Turnbull and one from Beau Burrows. Claiming the other awards were Blaine Hardy (Toledo), Alex Faedo (Lakeland), and Eudis Idrogo (West Michigan).

Hall Lights Out in the ‘Pen

In addition to Turnbull’s gem, the SeaWolves claimed the top relief performance of the week, too. Southpaw Matt Hall fired four excellent innings Friday night, fanning nine, with a hit batter the lone blemish. Hall then came back and retired all four he faced in his lone other outing of the week.

Selected in the sixth round of the 2015 draft, Hall sports a 2.78 ERA through 21 outings. With 47 strikeouts in 32.1 innings, the southpaw boasts a strikeout rate of 13.1/9. He’s surrendered just 21 hits, to hold opponents to a paltry .176 average. The Erie starters grab many of the headlines, but Hall and the bullpen have done a terrific job this season.

Rogers Finding his Stroke?

We’ve covered at length the struggles of defensive superstar catcher Jake Rogers at the dish in 2018. Rogers may finally be coming around at the plate after a strong week.

After back-to-back days off last weekend, Rogers went 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBIs on Sunday. He followed that up Tuesday with three home runs in a 12-0 win over Hartford (Colorado). The outburst was part of a stretch where he scored three times in three straight games.

Going into Wednesday, he strangely led the SeaWolves in home runs with seven, despite having zero doubles. Rogers finally collected his first two-bagger of the season Wednesday. His average may still only be .188, but that’s 30 points higher than it was at the start of the month.