Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Taijuan Walker made his first regular season start as a Met in front of a crowd of 8,492 fans at Citi Field on Thursday afternoon. He turned in a strong performance, giving up just two runs in six innings.

Walker gave up four hits, walked two batters, struck out four, induced ten whiffs on 39 swings, and threw 87 pitches. He didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning and both of the runs he surrendered came in the sixth inning when Corey Dickerson and Jesus Aguilar each had an RBI hit.

The tall right-hander demonstrated excellent velocity on all of his pitches. He averaged 95.4 mph on 31 4-seam fastballs, 94.8 mph on 19 sinkers, 88 mph on 27 sliders, 89.9 mph on six splitters, and 76.3 mph on four curveballs. His spin rate was also up on all of his pitches except for the splitter. Small sample size, but two things worth monitoring going forward.

Walker’s four-seamer maxed out at 97 mph, a number he hasn’t seen since 2017. In 2020 — his best season production wise in a few seasons — his average fastball was 93.2 mph.

All of the average velocities on his five different pitches from Thursday’s start were above his career averages. While the extra adrenaline from pitching in front of his new team’s fans for the first time might have had something to do with how hard he was throwing, he was also throwing hard in his Spring Training starts. This might just be how hard Walker throws now.

Walker only pitched 14 combined innings in 2018 and 2019 due to Tommy John surgery and a shoulder capsule sprain he suffered while rehabbing from TJ. Despite avoiding injury in 2020, he only pitched 53 1/3 innings because of the pandemic shortened season. With his injuries further behind him, his relatively youthful age of 28, and his improved velocity, it’s reasonable to think Walker has a lot of untapped potential and could have a career year in 2021.

Miguel Castro, Trevor May, and Edwin Diaz each threw a scoreless inning in relief. It the first appearance of the season for Diaz, but the third time in four games that both Castro and May have pitched.

It’s unclear how hard Luis Rojas will push his three best relivers until Seth Lugo is activated from the IL but so far, it doesn’t seem like he has a lot of relievers he trusts in high leverage situations on the active roster right now.