Walker is still looking for his game changer in the loss to the D-backs

Walker is still looking for his game changer in the loss to the D-backs originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia

Rob Thomson remembers. Of course. The Phillies manager will never forget the one that got away last October. How his team needed just one win in two games against the Diamondbacks to get back to the World Series. One victory in two attempts at home, where they were practically invincible during the playoffs. A stinking victory.

They didn’t understand, of course. The starting pitching (Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez had a combined 7.00 earned run average) and bats (.175 average and just 2 of 17 with runners in scoring position) went cold at the wrong time. It happens. Thomson had no control over this, but he still questions some of his decisions in the game. Like letting the struggling Johan Rojas bat – and strike out – with the bases loaded and two down in the fourth inning of Game 7.

The Diamondbacks returned to Citizens Bank Park on Friday night for the first time since spraying champagne in the visitors’ clubhouse. This provided an easy but lazy revenge angle, but Thomson wasn’t remotely worried about results he couldn’t change.

Which is good because he already has enough to worry about here and now. Like the enigma that is right-hander Taijuan Walker, who was booed heartily by the sold-out Citizens Bank Park crowd of 44,436 after allowing four runs on five hits – three of them home runs – in four innings of a 5-4 loss to the Diamondbacks .

That raised the rotation’s combined earned run average to 3.02, the highest since it stood at 3.09 following an April 14 loss to the Pirates.

Walker is now 3-3 with a 5.60 ERA.

“He fought,” Thomson said plainly. “It felt like everything was hanging. He was getting behind in the count and had to go after people. And everything was in the zone and attainable.

“But I know he’s working on it. And I know he cares. That’s why I have patience with him.”

Which is fine. But the manager said earlier this season when asked about Walker that any decision made about him will be based on performance.

The hesitation is that there are no clear alternatives at the moment. There are no pitchers in the system right now who are pitching so well that their success is practically screaming for a promotion.

And the obvious solution — putting Spencer Turnbull back into the rotation, a role he excelled in early in the season while Walker was on the injured list — also has drawbacks. Turnbull pitched a total of 57 innings, less than half in the majors, last year and none in 2022. The team will have to balance that risk with the fact that even with sporadic work since being sent to the bullpen, his ERA is 2.63 after three closing innings on Friday night.

The Phillies have made it clear they don’t want to risk breaking him with a heavy workload, and he’s already thrown 51.1 innings this year.

The first step, the manager said, will be to sit down with Walker to ask if he is healthy.

Said Walker: “I feel healthy, so that will probably be my answer. I felt 100% fine. My arm felt really good (Friday).

He believes that the biggest problem remains the fact that he does not have command of his divider, his best weapon in the last two years.

“The problem now is that it doesn’t exist,” he said. “It’s been my bread and butter, my selling point in difficult situations. And now it’s just not there. Obviously, I’m doing everything I can to find him. But it really doesn’t exist.

“It is extremely frustrating. I’m crushing it, but I know I need to clean my (stuff).”

Just nine of his 77 pitches on Friday night were game-changers. “Should he play more?” Thomson asked rhetorically. “Yeah. But if he’s going to be in the strike zone, he probably shouldn’t.”

If the manager is satisfied that Walker has no physical problems, all bets will be off after that. Thomson said that even if he was considering taking the 31-year-old, who is in the second season of a 4-year, $72 million contract, out of the rotation, he wouldn’t admit it publicly.

Walker’s velocity decreased in the second straight game, reaching 91.7 miles per hour, according to baseballsavant.com. When that happened last year, he was let go to see if the extra rest could help.

“I don’t know if we’re there yet,” Thomson said. “I’m sure he’ll make his next start. But again, there will be a lot of conversations. That’s why I want to ask the question (about his health). Because it looks like he’s trying to create speed. It seems like he’s just trying to throw as hard as he can instead of staying within himself and focusing on command and control. That’s exactly what I’m feeling. And that’s when it misfires.”

There’s no need to panic. The season has not yet reached its halfway point and the Phillies continue to have a comfortable lead in the NL East. At the same time, they are now just 12-12 since May 24 and have seen their lead over the Braves cut from 10 games to six games in less than two weeks.

Walker gave up a solo home run to left fielder Lourdes Guriel Jr. With one out in the third, he passed centerfielder Corbin Carroll, who stole second. Catcher Gabriel Moreno and designated hitter Joc Pederson followed with back-to-back home runs to center and Arizona never relinquished the lead.

Trea Turner drove in all but one of the Phillies’ runs, with a two-run homer in the third and a bases-loaded infielder in the seventh. Nick Castellanos completed the scoring with a solo home run in the eighth.

That brought up Bryce Harper with the bases still loaded and just one out, but as the crowd roared in anticipation, the National League All-Star vote leader turned into a 1-2-3 double play.

“We had our chances,” Thomson said.

It remains to be seen how many more Walker will get.

UP NEXT: Diamondbacks series remaining matchups: LHP Tommy Henry (2-2, 6.23) vs. RHP Zack Wheeler (8-4, 2.84) Saturday at 4:05 p.m. and RHP Slade Cecconi (2-5, 5.90) ​​vs. LHP Cristopher Sanchez in a brunch special at 11:35 a.m.

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