Taijuan Walker the unsung hero of Saturday’s win

Taijuan Walker threw three scoreless innings in relief on Saturday. (Grace Del Pizzo/Phillies Nation)

Cal Stevenson stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning on Saturday with a chance to tie the game. He did more than that, delivering a two-run double that carried the Phillies past the Mets.

Bryce Harper was a large reason why Stevenson had the chance to do that in the first place. He snapped a 30-day home run drought with two big flies.

Taijuan Walker is a large reason why either of those two performances mattered.

Walker came on in the fourth inning, in relief of Kolby Allard, with the Phillies down 4-0. The goal was probably, more than anything else, to have him eat innings. But things changed in the middle innings with Harper’s solo homer in the fourth and his two-run homer in the sixth.

Harper brought the deficit to 4-3, and Rob Thomson went to his big guns from there. Orion Kerkering took over in the seventh after Walker had fired three shutout frames — allowing three hits, no walks and no baserunners in scoring position. His efforts kept the Phillies alive.

“Him to be able to come out of there, get the job done for us and keep us in it in that situation,” Harper said postgame, “I mean — that was really good stuff out of him today.”

It’s easy to argue Walker’s new role is the correct one for him, but that doesn’t make it easy. Before this September, he had made one relief appearance since the start of 2015. He hasn’t met the expectations set by his four-year, $72 million contract, but he’d been successful enough as an MLB starter to earn it in the first place. The last two years, and especially this one, must be humbling.

Couple that with the physical side of the bullpen transition — it entails an entirely different routine from starting — and it’s made even tougher. Walker’s first two relief appearances this month didn’t go all too well, and perhaps the Phillies didn’t expect much better than the three-inning, two-run or two-inning, two-run outings he’d given since the demotion.

He gave them much better, indeed. Thanks to him, Harper and Stevenson, the Phillies won a game against a division rival they probably shouldn’t have won — and trimmed their magic number in the process.

“Taijuan Walker,” Rob Thomson said postgame, “saved us.”

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