Taijuan Walker fired his last pitch of the day, an 84.7 mph slider that dipped away from the right-handed hitting Hunter Goodman, for a swinging strike three. He pumped his fist, then slowly walked off the mound. Brandon Marsh applauded him on his way back to the dugout. Manager Rob Thomson gave him a hug. His teammates lined up to congratulate him.
It must have felt good. After getting booed off the field in his last spring training start and booed during the team introductions at the home opener, a few fans stood and applauded Walker’s six shutout-inning performance against the Colorado Rockies. He was the winning pitcher in the Phillies’ 3-1 victory. It’s the first time the Phillies (5-1) have won a game that Walker has started since May 22, 2024.
He has made remarkable progress. Last year, Walker finished the season with a 7.10 ERA. He struggled to reach the high 90s with his sinker. All of his secondary stuff blended together. Opposing hitters were feasting on him. Fans were angry. Walker was the punching bag.
It was not a fun experience for all involved. Fans begged the Phillies to eat the money and move on. Walker lost his job in the rotation, and had to deal with the consequences of not living up to the contract he signed.
“Obviously, you don’t want to hear [the boos], you know, constantly,” Walker said. “But it’s part of the game. It’s tough to play here. When you’re pitching well, when you’re doing well and you’re winning, it’s the best fans to have.”
His mother, Nellie, cried in the stands while her son was being booed by thousands of angry people during a game last season.
But she was back at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday, crying tears of joy.
“She’s so happy right now,” Walker said.
There was a lot to like. He needed only 74 pitches to get through six. He recorded 11 swing-and-misses, the most in an outing since June 2 of last year. He consistently sat 92 to 93 mph with his sinker.
“Just pounding the zone, getting ahead, throwing strikes,” Walker said. “Just really staying in the zone. They were aggressive today, so just mixed the slider a lot early and the cutter. But everything was working really well today.”
“He mixed really well today,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “He was able to really use all of his pitches really effectively throughout the whole game.”
Walker’s next start will come against the struggling Braves in Atlanta. He’s not guaranteed to spend a significant amount of time in the rotation. Ranger Suárez (back) will probably make his first start this month, or in early May. Walker is here to serve as the Phillies’ long man if everyone is healthy, or starter when someone is injured.
But it’s still somewhat of a surprise that Walker is not only still a Phillie, but starting a game during the first week of the season. The acquisition of Jesús Luzardo in the offseason bumped Walker off the 2025 rotation. Joe Ross, signed to be a swingman, entered camp as another starting option that was probably ahead of Walker on the depth chart for the Phillies. The team decided against building him up as a proper starter at the beginning of spring training. An illness prevented them from deviating from the plan, if they preferred.
Was anyone else besides Walker in consideration to take Suárez’s spot?
“Not for me,” Thomson said on Wednesday. “With Taijuan’s stuff, I know the last couple of [Grapefruit League] starts weren’t as good as the first couple of starts. He was also working on a few things. The stuff was a lot better than it was last year. I have a lot of confidence in him. I really do.”
He got off to an encouraging start in spring, allowing just four earned runs combined in his first three outings. He got tattooed in his final two tune-ups. Any positivity that came out of his first few outings evaporated. The expectations were once again very low for Walker.
Whatever they were, he met them against an aggressive Colorado team. He will face much tougher lineups that require him to be just a little bit better than he was.
But Thursday, more than anything, temporarily alleviated some of the tension around the entire situation. Before the game, Thomson told a story about one of Walker’s many poor outings from last year. The details don’t exactly align with any of Walker’s outings because they all blur together. But the premise was that Walker, late in the year, was getting beat and booed. His manager kept asking him if he wanted to go back out there. He kept saying yes because the team needed innings.
“That’s who he is,” Thomson said. “He’s a great teammate.”
