Phillies rally in 8th to beat Mariners, 6-5, amid Taijuan Walker injury scare

The first sign of trouble arose when the Phillies didn’t send Taijuan Walker back to the mound for the fifth inning Wednesday night, even though he threw only 68 pitches through the first four.

Soon after, there came two ominous words: forearm tightness.

In the near term, the Phillies dulled another potential blow to their depleted starting rotation by pulling off a come-from-behind 6-5 victory over the Mariners. They scored twice in the eighth inning on four successive singles, with Brandon Marsh racing home from second base to score the go-ahead run on Alec Bohm’s base hit to left field against Seattle reliever Justin Topa.

“We just really don’t like losing,” Nick Castellanos said after the Phillies (12-13) won for the fourth time in five games before 32,641 paying customers on a rainy weeknight in April. “So, we’re really plugged in until the last out is made.”

It would have made for a nice, feel-good early-season moment for the reigning National League champs, who are trying to find their footing before Bryce Harper returns, possibly by the end of next week.

But that would be ignoring the nervous news about Walker.

Neither Walker nor manager Rob Thomson was overly concerned by what the team characterized as “right forearm tightness” that developed during the Mariners’ five-run second inning, Walker said he likely could have kept pitching; Thomson called the early exit “more precautionary than anything.”

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And maybe that will all be confirmed Thursday, when Walker sees team doctors and possibly undergoes additional testing. But it’ll be a few more weeks before the return of No. 3 starter Ranger Suárez, who will start a game Thursday night for double-A Reading for the first time since straining his left elbow in spring training. Top prospect Andrew Painter is months away from making his major league debut. A reliever (Matt Strahm) is already in the rotation.

So, until the Phillies know for certain that Walker has nothing to worry about, well, it’s OK to be worried.

Is Walker concerned?

“No,” he said. “Just want to get ahead of it. I probably could’ve kept going, but we didn’t want to make it worse.”

There weren’t overt signs of an injury, although Walker did give up five runs — all with two outs — in a span of 18 pitches in the second inning and briefly lost track of the strike zone. He issued four-pitch walks to Cal Raleigh to begin the rally and Kolten Wong to load the bases, with an infield hit by AJ Pollock sandwiched in between.

Walker allowed a grand slam to ex-Phillies shortstop J.P. Crawford on a fastball that registered at 92 mph, which, if accurate, would be a considerable drop-off from his 93.4 mph season average. Walker topped out at 94 mph but averaged 92.4 mph, according to Statcast.

“It got tight a little bit in the second inning and lost a little command, didn’t really know where it was going too much,” Walker said. “After that, it kind of loosened up a little bit. Still lingering the next two innings and just wanted to be smart about it.”

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Injuries, especially to pitchers, are on the rise across the majors, prompting whispers within the game that the pitch clock might be a contributing factor. Through Tuesday, 169 pitchers had appeared on the injured list since the start of the season. A total of 427 pitchers were sidelined in the 2022 season.

It has put even more of a premium than usual on rotation depth. The Mariners, for instance, began the year with six major league starters. After learning Thursday that lefty Robbie Ray will need season-ending surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon, they surely are thankful that they didn’t trade Marco Gonzales or Chris Flexen.

The Phillies will keep holding their breath, then. Walker’s next turn in the rotation is scheduled for Monday night at Dodger Stadium. If he must take a turn on the injured list, triple-A lefty Cristopher Sánchez could start in his place. Beyond him, the options are slim.

“It’s definitely sore now,” Walker said. “It’s not as bad as we thought it was. It kind of calmed down. Still a little sore. We’ll see the doctor tomorrow, see what he says, see how I feel in the morning.”

The comeback was fueled by two familiar sources: Castellanos and Marsh.

After belting an opposite-field home run in the first inning against Mariners starter Logan Gilbert to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead, Castellanos singled home Bryson Stott in the fifth to cut the deficit to 5-4.

Castellanos also kick-started the game-winning rally in the eighth with a leadoff single. He took third base on Marsh’s single, then scored the tying run on a single by J.T. Realmuto.

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Marsh’s eighth-inning hit stretched his career-long on-base streak to 21 games. Entering the game, Marsh had a .550 slugging percentage since being acquired by the Phillies at the trade deadline last year. It was tied for the fifth-best mark in baseball, trailing only Mike Trout (.657), Aaron Judge (.637), Jose Altuve (.569), and Max Muncy (.551).

Unsung hero of the game: Luis Ortiz, who replaced Walker and held the Mariners to one hit over two scoreless innings, enabling the Phillies to chip away at the 5-2 deficit.

“I wasn’t even thinking about it,” said Ortiz, an offseason waiver claim from the San Francisco Giants who got called up last week and has given up one run in seven walk-free innings. “Just trying to get ground balls, get outs.”

Strahm (1-2, 3.00 ERA) will start a matinee series finale at 1:05 p.m. Thursday. He will be opposed by Mariners right-hander George Kirby (2-1, 3.57).