Taijuan Walker’s poor outing vs. the Mets dooms the Phillies in series-opening loss

NEW YORK — In the bottom of the fourth inning on Thursday night, with two runners on, Taijuan Walker threw a sinker, belt-high, to Francisco Alvarez. Alvarez quickly deposited it into the left field seats, taking his time as he skipped around the bases. Walker did not look at the Mets catcher. He did not look at the scoreboard. He just stared past the visitors’ dugout.

Walker has had some bad moments in his Phillies tenure, but his outing on Thursday was among the worst. The right-handed pitcher was coming off of his best game of the season, against these same Mets on Sept. 14. He pitched three innings of scoreless ball that night, allowing just three hits.

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He was throwing out of the bullpen, but it was a good enough showing that the Phillies decided to give Walker another shot at being the fifth starter. Instead of seizing the opportunity, he collapsed. He allowed eight earned runs on six hits in a 10-6 loss to the Mets on Thursday, walking three batters. The four home runs he allowed were the most in a start in his career.

“I just didn’t execute and get the job done,” Walker said.

The problem was his command. Walker saw his velocity tick up across the board, but he wasn’t able to locate his pitches. The Mets capitalized on it.

“The one to Pete [Alonso] was supposed to be up,” Walker said. “[Mark] Vientos was a slider down and away, that kind of spun back. The one to [Brandon] Nimmo, back-door cutter. … He’s usually pretty patent, but put a good swing on it. And obviously the 2-0 fastball right down the middle, that’s just not going to cut it.”

Manager Rob Thomson after the game took responsibility for how the fourth inning. Walker had thrown 57 pitches entering that at-bat against Alvarez and had given up three home runs. Walker had led off the inning with a hit-by-pitch and a walk. But Thomson opted to stick with him.

“[It was] because I’m not going to burn the bullpen,” Thomson said.

Alvarez was going to be Walker’s last hitter.

“We’ve got a game tomorrow, we’ve got a game for six days in a row,” Thomson said. “You start using all of those guys up, then what happens tomorrow if you get down? It just didn’t work out. My fault. I’ll wear it.”

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The Phillies — who struck out 12 times on Thursday, after striking out a combined 32 times on Tuesday and Wednesday — did their part to rally back. After Walker allowed consecutive home runs in the first inning, Trea Turner hit a two-run home run in the top of the third to tie the game.

After Walker allowed a two-run home run to Nimmo in the next half inning, the Phillies rallied, again. Nick Castellanos hit a one-out single in the fourth, J.T. Realmuto drew a two-out walk, and Brandon Marsh hit an RBI single to left to cut the Mets’ lead to 4-3.

But in the bottom of the inning, Walker threw that belt-high sinker to Alvarez, and all of a sudden, the Phillies were staring at a four-run gap. José Ruiz entered in relief of Walker a few at-bats later, with one man on and one out. He allowed an RBI double and an RBI single to give the Mets a 9-3 lead.

The lineup battled back, again. Realmuto led off the seventh with a double, Marsh followed with a single, and pinch-hitter Wes Wilson was hit by a pitch. Schwarber grounded into a force out that scored Realmuto, and Bryce Harper hit a two-out double to drive in two more runs.

The at-bats were better than they had been in Milwaukee, but it was to no avail.

“I really thought that at one point we were going to come back,” Thomson said. “We had that big inning going. Schwarber hits a bullet right at the second baseman, but we ended up scoring three. I really thought we were going to come back and win that game.”

The Mets tacked on another run in the seventh off of reliever José Alvarado, but the Phillies did not add on from there. They entered this series needing just one more win to clinch a postseason spot, and that remains the case. Their magic number to clinch the division is still four.

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For now, the celebrations are on hold. The Phillies have nine regular-season games left to play. It’s unclear what Walker’s role will look like over those nine games. Thomson needs only one more start out of a fifth starter — whoever it may be. The only thing that Thomson disclosed on Thursday was that he’ll use the long relievers heavily in that game.

But regardless of whether Walker makes that final start, he will finish this season feeling frustrated.

“It’s never happened to me before,” Walker said. “I feel like I’ve been pretty consistent in my whole career, and just going through this for the first time, it sucks. We’ve got a good team and I want to be a part of it. And help the team as much as possible, and I’m just not doing my job right now.”