Nik Turley – a pitcher at Triple-A Rochester in the Twins organization – had a big night on the mound on Tuesday, striking out a career-high 15 batters in six innings.
Turley scattered a few hits early on, but recorded the first 10 outs via strikeout. The left-hander struck out the side four times and struck out at least two batters in every inning but one.
Only three of the 18 outs he recorded were groundouts or flyouts, the rest were punchouts.
“I knew I had quite a few going into the fourth or fifth inning, but I didn’t know how many I had,” Turley told MILB.com.
The 27-year-old even topped a performance from earlier this year at Double-A Chattanooga, when he struck out 14 batters. Turley isn’t on any Twins prospects list, but he’s having a phenomenal year in his first season in Minnesota’s system.
He allowed just six hits in 24 innings at Double-A and after getting promoted to Rochester, Turley has allowed just 11 earned runs in seven games (five starts) this season in Rochester.
This is his first season in the Twins organization after spending time in the Yankees, Giants and Red Sox’s system.
He’s yet to pitch in the big leagues, but he’s thrown over 748 innings in his minor league career. Turley isn’t on the team’s 40-man roster, so the Twins would have to make a corresponding roster move if they’d want to call him up.
With all the strikeouts he’s piling up this year, we could see him in a Twins uniform very soon.
