Red Wings' Turley erupts for 15 strikeouts

It's not easy to top a 14-strikeout performance, but Nik Turley did exactly that against his former team Tuesday.
The Minnesota left-hander fanned a career-high 15 batters over six scoreless frames in Triple-A Rochester's 8-1 victory over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Frontier Field. He allowed four hits and issued a pair of walks.

Turley registered 14 strikeouts on April 25 in his final start for Double-A Chattanooga, fanning the final eight batters to cap the performance. Against the RailRiders, he opened the game by recording the first nine outs via the strikeout.
Gameday box score
"I knew I had quite a few going into the fourth or fifth inning, but I didn't know how many I had," Turley said. "I mean, I felt good. I was actually hoping they would put the ball in play a little more so I could have thrown one or two more innings."
The 27-year-old worked around doubles by Tyler Austin and 11th-ranked Yankees prospectTyler Wade in the fourth and fifth respectively before setting down the side in order in the sixth.
Turley fanned the side four times and struck out at least two batters in every inning except the fourth. The 15th -- a six-pitch punchout of New York's No. 2 prospect Clint Frazier -- equaled his combined total over his last three starts.

As he did in his dominant Lookouts outing, Turley used his offspeed stuff to induce a considerable amount of swinging strikes. Of the 15 whiffs, 14 were swinging.
"When I was in Chattanooga, I was able to throw both my slider and curveball for strikes," the California native said. "They're both swing-and-miss pitches when they're good.
"We were just going over my percentages. I actually throw fastballs close to 70 percent of the time. That's quite a bit. Since I throw a lot of fastballs, it helps a whole lot when I'm able to throw a breaking ball or offspeed for strike one."
Drafted by the Yankees in the 50th round of the 2008 Draft, Turley pitched for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2014. After making 13 appearances with the RailRiders that year, he bounced from the Giants to the White Sox to the Red Sox before settling with the Twins in 2016.

Tuesday's outing marked the Harvard-Westlake High School product's second against his old team. He said seeing familiar faces in the opposing dugout made the night even more memorable.
"I played with quite a few of these guys for years with the Yankees," he said. "It's a little weird playing against them, but it definitely made tonight a little sweeter to have a good one against some buddies."
Twins No. 15 prospectMitch Garver backed Turley with a three-run homer in the sixth. Zack Granite added three hits, an RBI and a run scored while John Ryan Murphy and Bengie González plated a run apiece for the Red Wings.
Chance Adams (3-2), the Yankees No. 7 prospect, allowed three runs on three hits and four walks while striking out seven over six innings for the RailRiders.