Categories: 2024 Postgame Recaps

Taijuan Walker shelled as Phillies’ freefall continues in Kansas City

Rob Thomson’s Phillies continue to struggle. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire)

Final Score: Royals 7, Phillies 4

KANSAS CITY — At a certain point, all the baseball cliches, true as they may be, ring hollow.

The Philadelphia Phillies reached that point a few weeks ago.

Yes, they did build up such a large cushion early in the season that they will almost certainly still make the playoffs in a system that sends six teams in each league to the postseason. Winning the NL East shouldn’t be taken for granted, though with how banged up the Atlanta Braves are, the Phillies remain the favorites to do that as well.

But making a third consecutive trip to the playoffs and winning the first NL East crown since 2011 won’t matter if the Phillies are eliminated in their first postseason series. And given that the Phillies are now 12-20 since the All-Star Break, it’s hard to fault anyone who has a sneaking suspicion right now that Red October will be rather brief in 2024.

What may also be limited are the remaining starts Taijuan Walker has left in a Phillies uniform. Walker is only in the second season of a four-year/$72 million contract, but after giving up eight hits and six earned runs in just three innings against the Royals Friday evening at Kauffman Stadium, Walker has a 6.26 ERA in 13 starts this year.

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For as much as Walker struggled early in games a season ago, he still provided value by logging 172 2/3 innings. In 2024, he’s not even eating innings for the Phillies. It will be interesting to see if Walker makes his next scheduled start.

But Walker was never going to be a factor in the postseason. For much of the first half, it looked like the Phillies as a team had an opportunity to finish the season with the best record in baseball and enter the playoffs as the favorites to win the World Series. Right now, it seems like the Phillies are holding on for dear life, and that’s with over a month still to play in the regular season.

Walker and his immediate future can be the story tonight. A bigger, more pertinent question remains: What the hell happened to the team that was 55-29 at the end of June?

Highlights

With two outs in the bottom of the first inning, Kansas City first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino reached first on an infield single with two outs. Trea Turner made a sliding stop on the grounder to the left of the second base bag, but wasn’t able to come up with a clear throw to first. Salvador Perez then doubled him in, beating home a strong relay from Turner:

Following a J.T. Realmuto double to lead off the top of the third inning, Brandon Marsh plated him with a single into right field off of Michael Wacha. Marsh advanced to second base then when Kansas City right fielder Hunter Renfroe bobbled the ball.

However, the Phillies failed to add on with runners on the corners and no one out in the third. First, Kyle Schwarber was rung up on a check swing that he clearly did go on. Then, Turner grounded into a double play, his second consecutive game where he hit into a twin-killing.

Rather quickly, the Royals retook the lead, with Pasquantino singing into right field with one out, which brought home Michael Massey.

A couple pitches later, Perez took Walker 434 feet for a splash-down home run, extending Kansas City’s lead to 4-1:

Two batters later, Renfroe cranked a two-run home of his own:

Nick Castellanos drove in Bryce Harper with an RBI groundout in the top of the fourth inning.

With Tyler Gilbert on in relief of Walker, the Royals continued to build onto their lead in the bottom of the fifth inning when veteran infielder Paul DeJong doubled into the left-field corner to score Renfroe.

Bryson Stott struck out to strand runners on the corners to end the top of the sixth inning.

Harper scored on a bases-loaded wild pitch by Royals reliever Kris Bubic in the top of the eighth inning.

Stott then helped the Phillies to further chip into Kansas City’s lead with a sacrifice fly that brought home Alec Bohm. The Phillies weren’t able to do any further damage in the eighth, leaving the deficit at 7-4.