Taijuan Walker leans on his best pitch to lift Phillies to losing streak-stopping 6-1 win over Red Sox

Ten pitches into Sunday’s game, Taijuan Walker thought he struck out a batter on a dirt-diving splitter. Instead, home-plate umpire Charlie Ramos ruled that the foul tip hit the ground. Walker bounded off the mound, asking for the ball to be checked for a smudge.

The protest didn’t work. But the symbolism was unmistakable.

It’s early May, barely six weeks into Walker’s four-year, $72 million contract with the Phillies. But this was a big start for the big right-hander, whose dismal beginning to the season is a major reason why the starting rotation has been unexpectedly precarious.

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Every pitch thrown by Walker in the series finale against the Red Sox seemed to carry a little extra heft. So, he led with his best one — the aforementioned splitter — and held Boston to three hits in six innings of a 6-1 victory that busted the Phillies’ six-game losing streak.

“Nobody likes getting beat, and he’s been a very successful pitcher for a long time,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “He competed his [butt] off today and threw the ball really well. I expect to see a lot of that going forward. It was good to see his fire out there.”

Indeed, Walker dazzled at sold-out Citizens Bank Park, yielding one run in six walk-free innings and showing as much emotion as he has since joining the Phillies. He dragged a 6.91 ERA and 13.2% walk rate into the game after not making it out of the fifth inning in four of six starts.

Walker left a recent start with forearm tightness, but both he and the team insisted he was healthy. Given how poorly he has pitched, it would’ve almost been more reassuring if he wasn’t.

But the Phillies simplified Walker’s attack plan. Rather than taking advantage of his six-pitch mix, pitching coach Caleb Cotham told him to emphasize his two best pitches: the splitter and whichever fastball, two-seam or four-seam, was most effective.

Walker bought into the idea. Of his 85 pitches against Boston, 46 were splitters, tied for the most he has ever thrown in a start. The Red Sox swung at 26 of them; they missed seven. And it was an effective pitch twice through the batting order, as Walker finished six innings.

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“It makes it way easier, especially with just attacking the zone,” Walker said. “It was mostly fastball-splitter today. No curveballs, a couple sliders, couple of cutters. But for the most part, it was just my two best pitches, and it worked out really well for us today.”

Moving forward, is that a sustainable strategy?

“I think it should be,” Walker said. “Everyone knows I throw it a lot. It’s my best pitch. If I’m going to get beat, I want to get beat with my best pitch. The plan is to attack with the fastball and try to put them away with the splitter.”

Said Realmuto: “It’s obviously a plus-plus pitch. It’s his best pitch. We know it, they know it. But the reason the split was so good today was he was able to throw it for a strike early in the count, but he also pitched so well with his fastball to keep them off the splitty as much as he could.”

The Phillies supported Walker with two hits, including a homer, and three RBIs from Kyle Schwarber, who was dropped from the leadoff spot to the No. 5 position in the batting order.

But the biggest development involved Walker, a mid-rotation starter who is in some ways the glue that holds the rest of the starting staff together after co-aces Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola.

The only blemish against him was Triston Casas’ two-out homer to straightaway center field on a fastball in the fifth inning. Otherwise, he gave up singles to Masataka Yoshida and Raimel Tapia, both of whom were thrown out on the bases.

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Most impressive, Walker didn’t issue a walk, notable considering his uncharacteristic control problems so far this season. His walk rate was nearly double his marks from last year with the Mets (6.9%) and over his career (7.7%).

Walker said the simplification of his pitch mix helped him lock in his command.

“The goal was just attack the zone, not walk anybody, and honestly just make them put the ball in play and be efficient,” Walker said. “That’s what we did today.”

Schwarber has batted everywhere — first through ninth — in nine major league seasons. He likes the leadoff spot but claims to not have a preference. So, he didn’t protest when manager Rob Thomson dropped him to the No. 5 spot.

And then, he broke an 0-for-21 skid.

Schwarber punched a one-out RBI single to right field in the fourth inning to open a 2-0 lead against Red Sox starter Tanner Houck. In the sixth, he launched a two-run home run against lefty reliever Richard Bleier to stretch the margin to 4-1.

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It represented a breakthrough for Schwarber, who entered with a .176/.295/.376 batting line. His slow starts are as notorious as his June hot streaks. Last year, Schwarber was batting .185/.311/.410 through the end of May.

“I hate it,” Schwarber said of the slow starts. “I wish that I didn’t. But it is what it is. Every single day I’ve got to prepare and be ready to go out there.”

Back in the bullpen with Ranger Suárez due to return to the rotation next week, lefty Matt Strahm tossed two scoreless innings to pick up the save.

Thomson said reliever Craig Kimbrel would have pitched the ninth inning if the Phillies hadn’t tacked on two runs to take a five-run lead in the eighth. But they also intend to use Strahm in a multi-inning role out of the bullpen.

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