Phillies notebook: Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Taijuan Walker
By Kevin Henry
DENVER — Following the 6-3 road win over the Colorado Rockies on Friday night, I headed into the Philadelphia Phillies clubhouse to hear what was being said.
While the Phillies found their offense late in the game, scoring three times in the seventh and eighth innings to secure the victory, it was starting pitcher Taijuan Walker that set the tone for the game on the mound.
Phillies notebook: Another strong performance from Taijuan Walker
Walker scattered seven hits and three runs over six innings to keep the Phillies in the game until the offense could get untracked. It was the second consecutive strong start for the 30-year-old right-hander, who limited Boston to three hits and one run over six innings in his last outing. It also continued an interesting trend for him at Coors Field, where he has overcome all of the talk about the thin air at altitude to put together a 2.43 ERA and 1.216 WHIP in 37.0 career innings in Denver.
“I know that my splitter plays very well here because I don’t always know what it’s going to do,” Walker smiled. “That kind of plays to my advantage with that. The goal with it was to keep it down (in the strike zone) and let it do whatever it does.”
According to Baseball Savant, Walker threw 30 splitters on Friday night, with them averaging 87.6 mph, a stark difference from the 93.1 mph his fastball averaged in Denver. Walker also got incredible movement on the pitch, helping to make it a big weapon.