Taijuan Walker adjusted his between-starts routine and had his best start yet in Phillies’ 1-0 win over the Tigers

For as much as everyone with the Phillies kept insisting that Taijuan Walker is healthy, there was one thing they could no longer deny: He hasn’t appeared at ease on the mound.

The trick was figuring out why.

Last weekend, Walker made a discovery. After struggling to get his body loose in his previous start, a recurring problem through the first two months of the season, he fielded grounders and sprinted in the outfield prior to throwing a between-starts bullpen session. The idea: Knock out the stiffness before getting on the mound.

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And then, Tuesday night, voila! Walker held the Detroit Tigers scoreless for seven innings and racked up eight strikeouts, easily his best start yet with the Phillies, who won a 1-0 squeaker on Kyle Schwarber’s first-inning leadoff homer.

Eureka?

Well, maybe.

“In the past, when I’m feeling good, my body’s feeling good, I’m able to use my lower half more and drive down the slope [of the mound], and that’s where the velo comes from,” Walker said. “This year, I just really haven’t been able to get in my lower half. But we found something in the last bullpen.”

So, does that mean more grounders for Walker?

“Yeah, you’ll probably see me out there,” the 30-year-old right-hander said. “I’ll be doing ground balls with the infielders and stuff. Yeah.”

Hey, look, whatever works.

The Phillies have won four games in a row, clinched back-to-back winning series, and crept closer to .500 (29-32) on the strength of starting pitching. Aaron Nola took a no-hitter into the seventh inning Monday night before Walker’s honest-to-goodness gem, long overdue after he signed a four-year, $72 million contract in the offseason.

“Those are the guys that are going to be key for us,” Schwarber said. “The way that they set the tone. For them to go out there, do their thing, go deep, give the bullpen a little bit of a rest, really good.”

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Last Thursday, Walker lasted four innings and exhibited diminished fastball velocity in a loss to the Mets in New York that left his ERA at 5.65. His heater averaged 92 mph, well below his season average (93.1), and maxed out at 94.4.

“I was pretty stiff last time,” he said.

Walker has tried several things to be more effective. After a rough stretch last month, he simplified his pitch mix and leaned only on his fastball and splitter. That worked for a couple of starts, and then he lapsed into another struggle.

So, before his bullpen session over the weekend in Washington, Walker reverted to a routine that worked for him in 2021 with the Mets when he would take grounders with fellow pitcher Marcus Stroman.

“We started doing it together, and I did it last year a lot, catching balls at first base for the infielders,” Walker said. “It’s just trying to be more athletic, really.”

To hear Walker tell it, moving around more enables him to use his legs better when he gets on the mound. And if he’s able to get more downward push with his legs, he’s able to generate better velocity.

“I’ve been using just a lot of arm all year,” he said.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson got such positive reports from pitching coach Caleb Cotham about Walker’s bullpen session that he said he was “kind of excited to see him pitch” again.

And everything translated against the Tigers. Walker plowed through Detroit’s lineup, striking out the side in the first inning, not putting a runner on base until the third, and not allowing a hit until Zack Short dunked a single into right field with one out in the fifth.

Walker completed seven innings for the first time in 13 starts for the Phillies. He hadn’t gone as deep since Sept. 16 of last season with the Mets. He even got a nice ovation from the 36,664 paying customers.

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Even when Walker got into a bases-loaded, one-out predicament in the sixth inning, he regrouped to strike out Jake Marisnick and get Zach McKinstry to line out to center field.

“Just stuck with my best pitch, with the splitter,” Walker said. “Today was the best my split’s been all year.”

If so, it was a function of the fastball, which ticked back into the mid-90s. Two of Walker’s first three pitches topped 95 mph. He froze Short with a 96-mph heater for a called third strike to end the second inning.

And the increased velocity was a product of using his legs more, which came from keeping his body loose.

So, maybe it is all interrelated.

Or maybe, like Schwarber says about morphing into Babe Ruth every June, it’s a coincidence. (Schwarber hit his third June homer, by the way, giving him 31 dingers in his last 50 games in June dating to 2021.)

And here’s a caveat to Walker’s apparent revival: The Tigers are one of the worst offenses in baseball. Entering the game, they ranked second-to-last in the American League in runs, slugging percentage and OPS, and hit the second-fewest homers in the league.

A tougher test comes Sunday when Walker is scheduled to face the powerhouse Dodgers, who blitzed him for eight runs and knocked him out in the fourth inning of a May 1 start at Dodger Stadium.

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But there’s no denying Walker was better. Way better.

“He was great,” Thomson said. “Just trying to get more rhythm in his delivery, and they found something. And he’s excited about it, too. He was really happy after that bullpen.”