Defense Helps Taijuan Walker Lift Mets Over Orioles

Taijuan Walker is proving to be one hell of a pickup by the New York Mets after pitching another gem in a 7-1 win against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday.

On a day where the Mets were reminded of their failed past with Matt Harvey on the mound for the visitors at Citi Field, Walker was determined to prove that the future looks very bright for the 2021 vintage.

With the team putting their early season defensive woes behind them and the bats getting off to an early and very hot start, Walker was spectacular on the mound as he spearheaded a seventh straight win for the Mets who are now 18-13 on the year.

There were plenty of talking points from this game as New York swept the two-game set, including Dominic Smith going 3-for-4 at the plate and the Mets proving that you don’t need home runs to win games given that this was their third straight game without one, but it was Walker who stole the headlines.

And it was ironic that it came on the day Harvey made his return to New York, a place where he flirted with being King of the Concrete Jungle before injuries hit  and slipping into baseball obscurity.

Granted, the Dark Knight was given a hero’s welcome upon his return to Citi Field but his performance was more joker than Batman as he allowed seven runs, including hits to the first four batters he faced, and he saw his ERA bloat from 3.60 to 4.81.

Walker, on the other hand, was content to do his work in the shadows of his predecessor and he continues to lay claim to being the steal of the offseason with another near-perfect outing, pitching his second straight shutout performance.

Signed to a two-year, $20 million deal late in the offseason, the 28-year-old delivered seven innings of one-run ball, improving to 3-1 and lowering his ERA to 2.20 on the year, but Walker was keen to shine the light on the effort made by his teammates out in the field.

“Our defense has been spectacular all year, we are making big plays, especially in the outfield,” Walker said. I like to pitch to contact, and the offense did a good job getting runs early and we just kept putting it on, so it was easy for me to go out there and just try to get quick outs.”

Walker, who has pitched to a 1.11 ERA at Citi Field so far this season, was able to pitch under little pressure given that the offense had chased Harvey out of the building by the fifth inning, and it was a pitching performance that should spark plenty of confidence among fans going forward.

In total, Walker allowed just one run and four hits over seven innings with four strikeouts and three innings, making it just one earned run over his past 14 innings, and the third starter has full confidence in himself as he continues to boost his stock following Tommy John Surgery in 2020.

“I feel confident in myself and I felt confident last year,” Walker said. “I showed that I had a couple of more pitches, and this year my only focus is to go out there and try to help the team win ballgames, try to go deep into games. I don’t care if I am proving people wrong or not. I know what I can do and the Mets believed in me and they know what I can do too.”

Walker was just dominant throughout his seven innings and he retired 11 straight batters beginning in the second, which came in the wake of retiring 18 straight against the St. Louis Cardinals last week, and Mets Manager Luis Rojas was full of praise for his starter.

“He’s got weapons, and the command right now I think is really good, so those two things are helping,” Rojas said. “The velo is a tick up compared to a couple of years back. All that, you can throw it in the mix and everything is making him play the way he is playing right now.”

Walker is certainly proving to be a superb addition to this rotation and he was a huge reason why the Mets finished this homestead 5-0, and his strong start to the season is a welcome boost with ace starter Jacob deGrom currently on the IL.

And, want to know the good news? With Carlos Carrasco and Noah Syndergaard both due back this year, the New York Mets could boast one of the most deadly rotations in all of MLB if Taijuan Walker can keep this up but, for now at least, the former Seattle Mariners pitcher is carving out quite the season.