Mandatory Credit: Jessica Alcheh-USA TODAY Sports
Prior to a poor outing last week against the San Diego Padres, Taijuan Walker only had nine strikeouts across his previous three starts in 17 2/3rd innings pitched. Since the four-run outing against in San Diego, Walker now has 19 strikeouts in only 12 2/3rd innings pitched. He has also allowed just two earned runs over this time.
"I expect to see a lot more strikeouts as the year goes on and I just feel really good right now"
Taijuan Walker talks about the success he's had in his last few starts: pic.twitter.com/UyELDCrSGH
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 18, 2022
Walker’s dominance has come at the heels of Tylor Megill, Max Scherzer, and Jacob deGrom all working their way back from injuries. For this reason, Walker’s recent surge has been great for the Mets. It also really makes you wonder how dominate the pitching staff could be when Megill and New York’s two aces return.
Walker has never been known for being a strikeout pitcher. However, with 44 strikeouts already in 2022, 19 in his last two starts, and the fact the right-hander is walking less hitters than ever in his eight-year career, he’s looked like a completely different pitcher. One that resembles the All-Star last season before his play fell off tremendously. Also one that, once again, can make the New York pitching staff lethal when fully healthy.
Yesterday evening, Walker retired 18 consecutive batters between a lead-off single by Jon Berti in the first inning, and a run-scoring double by the last batter he faced before he was removed. His splitter was working tremendously, as it has been so far this year, and once again resulted in numerous swings-and-misses. To be exact, Walker register nine strikeouts and 11 swings-and-misses. This culminated in his season ERA being lowered to 2.88.
A terrific all-around performance once again from Walker. Something the Mets will surely need as they continue to wait for their pitching staff to get healthy.
