It had been a long time since Spencer Turnbull put up numbers resembling his pitching line in the Philadelphia Phillies’ 9-4 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night.

In his opening outing of the 2024 season, Turnbull picked up the pitching win by working the first five innings. The former Alabama standout yielded one unearned run on three hits while striking out seven on a cold night at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

Turnbull became the seventh pitcher to strike out at least seven batters without giving up an earned run in his Phillies debut, and the only one to do so without issuing a walk in the franchise’s 142 seasons.

“I was getting it over the plate, and I was happy with that, especially as cold as it was out there,” Turnbull told NBC Sports Philadelphia. “It was awesome. I loved every minute of it. Not ideal conditions. The weather was definitely weather. But it was a lot of fun.”

Turnbull hadn’t had a Major League appearance without yielding at least one earned run since May 18, 2021. That game also was his most recent with at least seven strikeouts.

On that date, Turnbull struck out nine while pitching a no-hitter in the Detroit Tigers’ 5-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

In the almost three years between the no-hitter and Tuesday night’s victory, Turnbull pitched in 10 MLB games.

Turnbull left his start against the Chicago White Sox on June 4, 2021, because of forearm soreness in his pitching arm. Damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow sent him to Tommy John surgery, and Turnbull missed the 2022 season.

During his return in 2023, Turnbull dealt with neck problems and a cracked toenail. He made seven starts for the Tigers and posted a 1-4 record with a 7.26 earned-run average in 31 innings. Turnbull made two trips to the minors during the season and made eight more starts there.

“Going through TJ and all that stuff was really hard,” Turnbull told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “But then last year, trying to come back from it and the year just going so, on the surface, horrendously wrong was very tough.

“That first year back is kind of the year to kind of figure this stuff out again and figure out how you feel. I didn’t really get the chance to fully kind of return from TJ because my time was cut so short, so that was frustrating.”

Turnbull signed with the Phillies just before spring training started in Clearwater, Florida. He wasn’t guaranteed to make the regular-season roster. Philadelphia already had five pitchers on its roster who started at least 18 games for the Phillies last season – Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez, Taijuan Walker and Cristopher Sanchez.

Philadelphia gave Turnbull an opportunity to earn a spot as a long reliever while providing rotation insurance. When Walker went on the injured list with shoulder soreness in the last week of March, Turnbull got a spring-training start to prepare for the regular season.

On Tuesday night, he earned his first MLB pitching win since April 13, 2023, when he went the first six innings of the Tigers’ 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

In two seasons at Alabama, Turnbull had a 9-10 record with a 2.95 earned-run average in 30 starts. In 183.1 innings, he struck out 112 and yielded 153 hits and 85 walks. Turnbull left the Crimson Tide after the Tigers chose him in the second round of the 2014 draft.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.