This time, Taijuan Walker’s mom cried happy tears watching him shut down the Rockies
Walker silenced the boobirds — some even gave him a standing ovation — by limiting the Rockies to three hits in his season debut.
Taijuan Walker’s mother, Nellie Garcia, cried last year hearing her son get booed.
Boos from the Citizens Bank Park crowd had been the soundtrack to Walker’s prolonged struggles in 2024. He even was booed this year in spring training after getting hit hard in his final two starts, and again when he was introduced in the Phillies’ lineup before Monday’s home opener.
On Thursday, Garcia cried again. This time, they were happy tears.
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The right-hander walked off the mound after six scoreless innings in a 3-1 win to complete a sweep of the Colorado Rockies, and he had silenced the boobirds. Some fans gave him a standing ovation as he exited.
“Obviously you don’t want to hear [boos] constantly, but it’s part of the game. It’s tough to play here,” Walker said. “But when you’re pitching well, when you’re doing well and you’re winning, it’s the best fans to have.”
His mother was there in person to watch his best start in over a year.
“She texted me a billion times,” Walker said. “Just super proud, super happy.”
The applause wasn’t the only thing that would have been unimaginable for the 2024 version of Walker. He made just one scoreless appearance last year, holding off the New York Mets for three innings on Sept. 14 after he’d been moved to the bullpen.
But Walker emerged from a strict offseason program with harder velocity — he averaged 92.8 mph on his four-seam fastball Thursday, up from 91.5 last season — and a new, sweeping slider. Three of Walker’s 11 swings and misses against the Rockies came on the new pitch, including a swinging strikeout of Hunter Goodman to end his outing.
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Walker leaned heavily on his off-speed pitches and also threw a lot of curveballs and splitters.
“I think that slider matched up well with their lineup,“ said catcher J.T. Realmuto. “So we knew going in we were going to use it quite a bit today, and it was a really effective pitch. As long as he’s throwing it like he was today, we’re going to keep using it quite a bit.”
Walker allowed three hits, a walk, and hit a batter, but he avoided compounding mistakes. In the fifth inning, former Phillie Mickey Moniak hit a triple off the left-field wall, which came just a few feet from going out of the ballpark.
He walked the next batter but then induced a flyout to escape the inning.
“He just battled,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He just went after people, and he pitched.”
Meanwhile, the Phillies offense continued its streak of not scoring in the first three innings. In fact, the Phillies didn’t get on the board until the fifth inning, when Kyle Schwarber was driven home on a double by Bryce Harper.
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That didn’t mean that their bats were silent early on. They racked up six singles off Colorado starter Antonio Senzatela in the first three innings. The Phillies even loaded the bases in the second, and Max Kepler came close to bucking the trend, but he was narrowly thrown out on a force play at home.
Schwarber extended the lead to 2-0 in the seventh, crushing a solo home run 444 feet to right-center field. It was Schwarber’s fourth home run in the first six games.
“I’m just trying to stay in the zone and feel like I’m taking good swings and getting good results,” Schwarber said.
Realmuto tacked on another run in the eighth with some heads-up baserunning. He drew a walk, stole second, advanced to third on a passed ball, and scored on a wild pitch by Tyler Kinley.
Realmuto stole two bases on Thursday, matching his season total from 2024.
“He’s healthy right now,” Thomson said. “We kind of put the leash on him last year, just because he had the knee issue and all the lower-half stuff that he was going through. He can run when he’s healthy.”
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Orion Kerkering and Jordan Romano pitched a scoreless inning in relief. José Alvarado took over in the ninth and earned the save, but not without some drama.
The Rockies spoiled the shutout after Alvarado allowed a walk and a pair of singles to start the inning. He struck out the next batter, but another single loaded the bases and put the go-ahead run at first.
Pitching for the third time in the last four days, the lefty sat at 100 mph with his sinker, but he had some trouble with command.
Alvarado needed 35 pitches to get out of the inning, but he sat down Tyler Freeman and Brenton Doyle swinging to secure the win and series sweep.