Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Taijuan Walker took the mound for the New York Mets on Sunday as they closed out their West Coast road trip with a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels.

Walker pitched six very strong innings, allowing just one run on six hits and one walk. The impressive number was his strikeouts. Walker struck out 10 on Sunday night over the course of 97 pitches thrown (70 for strikes). This was Walker’s tenth career double-digit strikeout game and the first time he has struck out 10 or more batters since June 15, 2021. Per Metsmerized’s Matthew Brownstein, Walker is also the first Mets pitcher to strike out double-digit Angels in the 21 games the two clubs have played against each other in their clubs’ histories.

While the first five batters of the game for the Angels went 4-for-5 off of Walker, the remaining batters he faced were 2-for-17 as he settled in after the first five batters and two innings he threw. You could tell Walker made an adjustment on the mound after a rocky start, but he was lights out in his last four innings of work.

After 10 starts, Walker is now 4-2 with a 3.08 ERA over the course of 52.2 innings pitched. He has given up just 18 earned runs and has 35 strikeouts in 2022. He has struck out 48 of the 100 batters he has faced.

Pete Alonso spoke on Walker’s outing in his post-game press conference. He credited Walker and the entire pitching staff for doing a phenomenal job.

“Having the pitching staff hold the opposing team to minimum runs, hats off to those guys,” Alonso said. “Tai did an unbelievable job setting the tone.”

Walker pitched three times on the same road trip, which in the major leagues is rare. He spoke with the media about that task and his Sunday outing.

“I feel like that’s rare, but I wanted it. I wanted the task. I wanted to face the three best teams and go out there and show what I can do,” said Walker who also stated he felt like Sunday was his best outing all season.

“Thought it was good…” “We corrected [the tip] after the first two innings and after that started getting the swings and misses,” said Walker speaking on his outing. “I was being aggressive too with the fastball. The slider was there early in counts, and the splitter was swing and miss pitch today,” stated Walker.

Manager Buck Showalter agreed stating, “Taijuan was the key today. That was special,” he said.