Taijuan Walker Silences The Mets | Fly Tai’s Fourth Win In A Row Was Ace Stuff
The Philadelphia Phillies began a three game set against division foe New York Mets, with a 5-1 win behind another solid start from Taijuan Walker.
Make that four wins in a row for Big Tai.
Walker pitched six strong innings, giving up one run, three hits, while striking out five – improving his record to 8-3.
After a rough start to the season, (5.65 ERA in first 12 starts) Taijuan Walker has been real stingy on the mound lately.
Over his past four starts: 0.69 ERA with 26 IP, while only allowing 14 hits, two earned runs, six walks and 26 K’s. He’s dealing out there!
This kind of productivity is reminiscent of his first half of the 2021 MLB season form, when he received his first All-Star nod. He has now lowered his ERA to a much more respectable 4.10, lower than the 2023 league average of 4.20.
It would be remiss not to mention, that his latest stellar outing came against his former team,
The Mets, who failed to extend a qualifying to Taijuan last season after having a solid season, going 12-5 with a 3.49 ERA, his best season since 2017.
Walker pitched two seasons for New York, starting 59 games, compiling a 19-16 record, and 3.98 ERA.
He opted out of a six million dollar option with the club, knowing “yesterdays price is not today’s price” and that he would command a strong market in free agency after his performance last season.
This paved the way for the Phillies to swoop in and sign the pitcher to a four year deal, worth 72 million.
This is an important series for both teams. The Mets (34-41), with the highest payroll in baseball have been an epic disappointment thus far.
Coming into the series desperately looking to gain ground in the standings, they’re now sitting fourth in the NL East, 14 games out of first place in the division and 7.5 games out of the Wild Card.
The Phillies (39-36) have been playing much better ball lately, and are just 2.5 games out of a Wild Card spot.
The Mets, with a team ERA of 4.66, the sixth worst in the MLB, are quite frankly starving for quality pitching and could use this version of Tai Walker.
He might not admit it, but, it had to feel good to stick it to his old team, when at this point, they need every game to keep their playoff hopes alive.
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