DETROIT — A few days ago, as Spencer Turnbull braced for his return to the Phillies’ starting rotation, he noted that his right arm felt strong and healthy after a six-week stint in the bullpen.
“Knock on wood,” he said.
Turnbull paused and peeked around the dugout. He took a step, closed his fist, and tapped the bat rack three times before wondering aloud, “I don’t know if that’s plastic or wood.”
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In hindsight, maybe he should’ve double-checked.
Of all the ways that Turnbull imagined his first start back in Detroit going since the Tigers didn’t offer him a contract after last season, this wasn’t it. No, he didn’t get rocked by his former team Wednesday. Instead, he left after 36 pitches — only three innings — with what the Phillies classified as “right shoulder soreness” pending further evaluation.
The Phillies won anyway, 6-2, in the rubber game of the series. Slumping Brandon Marsh went 4-for-4 with his first homer in two months and four RBIs, while a relay team of relievers — Gregory Soto, José Ruiz, Matt Strahm, Orion Kerkering, and Jeff Hoffman — allowed one run in six scoreless innings before José Alvarado gave up a run in the ninth.
But as the Phillies raised their majors-leading record to 53-27 — with a four-game series at home against the dreadful, injury-depleted Marlins on tap beginning Thursday night — there’s suddenly a question about how they will fill the No. 5 spot in baseball’s best starting rotation.
It would be a bigger concern if, say, the Phillies didn’t have a 7½-game lead in the NL East entering play Wednesday. But Turnbull was already stepping in for Taijuan Walker, who went on the injured list last weekend with an inflamed right index finger.
And the pitching depth at triple A is lacking, to put it kindly.
Walker isn’t eligible to return until July 7 at the earliest, so he will miss at least one more start next Tuesday in Chicago. He accompanied the team to Detroit but wasn’t ready to test his finger by attempting to throw his signature splitter, the pitch that is most affected by the injury.
The Phillies called up Michael Mercado to take Turnbull’s seat out in the bullpen, and he made his major-league debut Monday night. Although he was starting in triple A, the plan was to move him back to a relief role to control his workload.
Mercado did throw 91 pitches in back-to-back triple-A starts earlier this month, and had a 1.98 ERA in 10 starts for Lehigh Valley. He would seem, then, to be the most likely choice to step in for Turnbull, if necessary.
In the meantime, the Phillies pocketed another victory — and crossed another day off the calendar — on the back of Marsh’s fourth career four-hit game and his first since April 16, 2023. Two of the hits even came against left-handed pitchers — Tyler Holton in the second inning and Joey Wentz in the eighth.
Marsh rarely starts against lefties, and it’s difficult to contend that he should. Entering play Wednesday, he was batting .143/.225/.167 with 22 strikeouts in 49 plate appearances against lefties.
But the Phillies hoped Marsh would be an everyday player when they traded for him at the 2022 deadline for touted catcher Logan O’Hoppe. Manager Rob Thomson claims he still believes Marsh will hit lefties. Until he does, though, the bulk of his opportunities are coming against lefty relievers.
“When we’ve got the lead, I don’t want to get his defense out, so he’s going to have to take down a left-hander,” Thomson said this week. “It’s baby steps. Eventually, I think he’s going to be not a platoon. I think he’s going to get the bulk of left-handed pitching.”
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Marsh, stuck in a 5-fot-27 rut, was in the lineup for the matinee finale in Detroit because the Tigers were using Holton only as an opener. He singled off Holton but did most of his damage against newly recalled righty Keider Montero.
In the fourth inning, Marsh broke a 1-1 tie by blasting a 95 mph fastball into the left-field bleachers for a two-run homer and snapping a homerless drought that lasted 135 plate appearances dating to April 26. In the fifth, he tagged a full-count heater from Montero for a two-run single to give the Phillies a 5-1 lead.
» READ MORE: Phillies opponents are trying neutralize their lineup with left-handed pitching. It’s not working.
