The Philadelphia Phillies lost to the Baltimore Orioles 6-2 on Saturday after starting pitcher Taijuan Walker allowed six hits and three runs in 5.2 innings. Yesterday's outing marked the sixth consecutive start of Walker's in which he allowed two earned runs or more.
Walker, who has a career-high 5.33 ERA through nine starts so far this season, seemed to think he's just a splitter away.
“I think [I am] close,” Walker said (via The Philadelphia Inquirer's Alex Coffey). “I just think the splitter is missing. I feel like all my other pitches have been really good. It’s just really the splitter that usually I don’t give up a lot of damage on, and right now, I’m giving up a lot of hard hits on the splitter.
“So, I’ve been throwing it a lot in between starts, but it’s one of those pitches I have to find. We’re still working on it. I feel like everything else is there. It’s just missing the splitter right now.”
Taijuan Walker's 2024 season stats
The 2024 season has not been a kind one to Taijuan Walker so far. Firstly, the Phillies starter suffered a scare during spring training when he reported a throwing shoulder issue to the Phillies' medical staff, which put him on the 15-day IL to open the season.
Twenty-nine games into the season, on April 28, Walker made his debut, pitching an up-and-down 6.1 innings against the San Diego Padres. He allowed eight hits, two home runs, and six earned runs in the 8-6 Phillies win. Walker returned to the mound on May 5 in a 5-4 win that went better for him; he struck out a season-high seven batters and surrendered five hits and three runs as Philadelphia defeated the San Francisco Giants.
Six days later, Walker earned his third consecutive victory in what may have been his best outing of the season to date. In an 8-3 win over the Miami Marlins, Walker limited Miami's lineup to eight hits and just one run (the fewest he's allowed in a start this year). In his next start, however, Walker exited the game vs. the New York Mets in the fourth inning after being hit in the toe by a Starling Marte line drive. In 3.1 innings, Walker allowed four hits and two runs.
After X-rays revealed there was no break, Walker returned on May 22, when he surrendered six hits and three runs to the Texas Rangers before being replaced in the fifth inning. Walker suffered his first loss of the season in his subsequent start, which saw him get beat up by the Giants. Walker lasted six innings for the first time in nearly three weeks but allowed five earned runs and a season-high nine hits in an 8-4 loss.
The poor Giants outing was the beginning of a bad trend for Walker and the Phillies, as the team has lost each of the last four games in which Walker has started. Philadelphia will try to break out of that trend next week when Walker (3-2, 5.33 ERA, 1.449 WHIP) is expected to make his next start.
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