John Leyba-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Mets were able to secure yet another series win on Sunday, thanks in large part to the tremendous effort of Taijuan Walker. In the 2-0 win, Walker was able to toss seven scoreless innings, limiting the Rockies to only five hits and two walks, while collecting a season high six strikeouts.

Walker faced early traffic on the basepaths, as the Rockies were able to get runners on the corners with two outs in the first inning, but he was able to fan Ryan McMahon to get out of the early jam. That strikeout ignited a streak of 12 consecutive batters retired for Walker, until José Iglesias lined a single to right field in the bottom of the fifth inning. During the streak, Walker was able to keep the Rockies hitters in check with his fastball and splitter, causing a lot of ground balls that could not travel through the thin Denver air.

The entirety of Walker’s run support against Gomber came in the top of the sixth inning. After a Travis Jankowski flyout, Brandon Nimmo found himself on third base with only one out, thanks to a single and error by Rockies right fielder Randal Grichuk. Francisco Lindor was then able to bring home Nimmo for the first run of the game with an RBI single to left field. A Jeff McNeil double put runners on second and third with only one out. Lindor was then able to come home on an RBI groundout from Pete Alonso.

Walker faced some rare traffic in the bottom of the seventh. After back-to-back singles by Randal Grichuk and Brendan Rodgers, he was able to get José Iglesias to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. Luis Guillorme then absolutely robbed Rockies’ rookie catcher Brian Serven of an RBI with a tremendous diving stop and bullet to first base to close out the inning, which would be the end of the fantastic start from Taijuan Walker.

 

The trio of Adam Ottavino, Joely Rodríguez, and Edwin Díaz secured the shutout for the Mets in their 2-0 win. It had been 84 straight home games that the Rockies scored two or more runs. It was the longest streak in NL history and the second longest streak in baseball since 1900. The Mets have now held Colorado to two runs or less on back-to-back days.

Taijuan Walker was able to put together a very impressive and encouraging start for the Mets in this low scoring pitchers duel. It brought his season ERA  down to 2.70 through 30 innings pitched. “I kind of just know what pitches work here,” Walker said after the game. “Talked about it before, and it’s the curveball and the splitter are two good pitches here. I was throwing the slider early, but just wasn’t getting the swings and misses and action on it. Just stuck with the curveball, fastball, and the splitter today.”

Walker also gave props to the impressive fielding by the Mets throughout the game, stating that ,”Our defense was really, really good today behind me, lot of ground balls, there was some really good plays made today.”

With the injuries to Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, and Tylor Megill, Walker’s role in the rotation becomes very critical to the Mets overall success over these next few weeks. Coors Field is known to be the hardest place to pitch in the MLB for a variety of reasons, and Walker was able to overcome the daunting task and put together his best start of the season, and arguably his career, considering the circumstances. Walker will look to build off this great start and continue to find success here in the young season.