For several minutes Friday afternoon, Spencer Turnbull stood in front of his locker in the Tigers clubhouse and happily spoke with a crowd of reporters.
He smiled about getting his first career win last week, at Fenway Park of all places. He laughed about helping Joe Mauer set a record last season in his second big-league appearance -- and then sheepishly congratulating a player he grew up watching. He affirmed that, a year later, he feels like he belongs.
Of course, this all happened on a day Turnbull wasn't taking the mound. Otherwise -- well, allow Ron Gardenhire to explain.
"If you watch him between innings, you would know exactly what I’m talking about," Gardenhire said in his office a few minutes later. "He does things that, whew, I don’t know. I’ll just say he’s out-there a little bit, which I like. I’ve seen a lot of pitchers like that. What is it -- they beat to their own drummer? And he does that.
"When it’s his day to pitch, just stay out of his way, let him go about his business, don't try to figure it out and you’ll be as sane as I am."
It's the same impression he made on Gardenhire throughout spring training, at least when he was pitching: his ball's got life. Turnbull pumps in his heater at 93-95 mph and his offspeed pitches move like crazy. He still struggles to control all of it, and this is one reason he flew under the radar compared to some of the other arms in the Tigers' farm system.
But in his first extended big-league action, Turnbull looks like he fits.
In his last two starts, Turnbull has taken down the defending World Series champs and the NL East-leading Phillies. He worked into and of trouble in each outing, his best moments coming in the tightest spots. He stranded seven runners against Boston, then six against Philadelphia. He also issued a combined six walks and four hit batters.
So far, this is the Turnbull experience. He's alternately his own worst enemy and the Tigers' most dynamic starting pitcher.
"My command’s probably not where I’d like for it to be right now, but it’s working for me some, too. Just mixing up my pitches. I’m not exactly sure where some of them are going sometimes," Turnbull admitted, "but that’s not always a bad thing either. Just continue to attack hitters the best I can with what I got."
There's a phrase for this kind of pitching, one that's been around baseball forever. As Gardenhire likes to say, "effectively wild."
"I think he just gets into the windup and lets her fly," he said.
Make no mistake, Turnbull will have to improve his control to sustain this early success. He leads the majors in hit batters (5) and leads the Tigers in walks (13). On top of inviting all kinds of jams, his wild arm limits his ability to go deep into games. He's yet to pitch past the sixth inning.
But Turnbull has shown the ability to bear down when he needs to, and that's not a trait every pitcher possesses. Nor it is one that can necessarily be taught. He's surrendered three runs or fewer in all six of his starts, and one run or fewer in half of them.
The red-headed, red-bearded rookie has come a long way in just a few months. When he was called up to the majors for the first time at the end of last season, he was staggered by some of the hitters staring back at him -- like that matchup with Mauer, who set the Twins franchise record for most times reaching base when he singled off Turnbull in one of the final games of his career.
"Now I feel like I’m one of their peers," Turnbull said, "so it’s just trying to get guys out. I don’t want to worry about too much other stuff because then you put too much pressure on a certain situation or a moment. I feel like I'm past that now. I've gotten away from a lot of those first thoughts when you first get here. I feel a lot more like myself out there on the mound."
And when he's not out there on the mound, Turnbull is still his own different guy. Take it, once more, from Gardenhire.
"When you’re around each other as much as we are in the clubhouse, you get to know all the little things about all your players," he said. "You can figure out which ones you really want to have a conversation (with) and which ones you don’t want to get into a conversation with."
Gardenhire laughed and added, "He might be one of the don'ts."