Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

While the Mets weren’t able to score any runs as they opened up a four-game series to the Los Angeles Dodgers late Thursday night, Taijuan Walker was able to continue his recent hot streak. The right-hander did surrender two runs across five 2/3 innings pitched, but that’s impressive against the star-studded Dodgers lineup nonetheless.

Walker’s final line on the day was seven hits, two earned runs, one walk and, two strikeouts through 5 2/3 innings. His splitter was the best pitch on Thursday night, generating seven whiffs and nine foul balls. His average fastball velocity was up as well, at 94.3 mph on the night compared to 93.8 mph for the season.

Walker’s strikeouts are down dramatically as his 13.2 strikeout percentage is not only in the bottom 6% of the league, but is the worst of his career since 2018. Over Walker’s last five starts he does own a 2.12 ERA and has a 2.88 ERA on the season. Walker might even be making a case to be an All-Star for his second consecutive season, and with Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer still on the IL, the Mets will take what they’ve been getting out of the righty of late.

Though Walker’s strikeouts are down, his walks are down the lowest they’ve been since 2016 at 2.9 per nine innings and he’s allowed only two home runs all season. A big reason for the success of Walker in 2022 has been his ability to made big pitches with runners on base. Opponents are hitting only .209 with a .279 slugging percentage against Walker with runners in scoring position. And he’s been dominant with two outs this season, holding hitters to a .427 OPS in that situation.

Walker has battled through shoulder discomfort and back pain to throw 40 innings for the Mets in a season that has been marred by injuries to top starting pitchers.