CHICAGO -- In the bottom of the first inning Friday afternoon, Phillies starter Taijuan Walker had worked Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner into a 2-2 count with the bases loaded and two outs.
Walker's next offering was a cutter low and off the plate. Foul ball.
He then went with a sinker headed toward the outside corner. Foul ball.
Then a slider well off the plate. Foul ball.
That continued as Hoerner fouled off eight of nine pitches -- ball No. 3 mixed in -- before lining out to left field. Walker managed to escape the frame unscathed on the scoreboard, but the damage was done to his pitch count with that 13-pitch at-bat.
He had to throw 37 pitches in the first, ultimately reaching 86 in just three innings and taking the loss in Philadelphia’s 4-0 loss at Wrigley Field.
“At that point, I'm just hoping he puts the ball in play,” Walker said of Hoerner’s at-bat. “I'm trying to throw something in the middle. Especially knowing that the wind is blowing in, I'm just trying to get something down the middle so he can just hopefully pop it up somewhere and we catch it.
“He just kept fouling off good pitches, and it got to a point where we were just calling stuff down the middle, just to have him put the ball in play instead of wasting pitches.”
In the third year of a four-year, $72 million deal, Walker is coming off a 2024 season in which he recorded a 7.10 ERA and pitched as many times out of the bullpen (four) as in his first 11 seasons combined. Had lefty Ranger Suárez not began the year on the 15-day injured list (lower back stiffness), Walker likely wouldn’t have started 2025 in the rotation.
But Walker got the opportunity and had done a strong job, holding a 2.29 ERA through his first four starts. Entering Friday, he’d raised his strikeout rate (19.3 percent vs. 15.2 percent in 2024) while slightly lowering his walk rate (9.6 percent vs. 9.7 percent). Walker had missed more barrels (7 percent barrel rate vs. 13.4 percent) and did a better job limiting hard contact (88.1 mph exit velocity and 35.1 percent hard-hit rate vs. 91.4 mph exit velocity and 46.3 percent hard-hit rate).
Even against Chicago, Walker still struck out four (23.5 percent strikeout rate) and limited hard contact (83.9 mph average exit velocity on 11 balls in play), and his cutter -- which he threw on 31 of his offerings -- induced five whiffs on 16 swings.
The issue Friday was the Cubs made Walker grind through his three frames. Seven of the 17 batters he faced worked him into a full count. Chicago had 12 plate appearances reach four pitches, nine reach five and six reach six.
Walker said he knew he’d thrown a lot of pitches, but he didn’t know just how many until manager Rob Thomson told him his day was over. Thomson could’ve let him go out for another frame and maybe save an inning for the bullpen, but he did not want Walker’s pitch count to get any higher.
“He's a battler. He's a grinder,” Thomson said. “He wanted to go out in the fourth inning. I just couldn't do it at 86 pitches after three innings. That's a lot. I don't want to put him in harm's way.”
While Walker has had a nice start to his year, and he feels like his stuff has been “pretty good,” he did note he hasn’t gone deep enough into games. He’s only made it through six innings once (April 3) and through five one other time (April 14).
Friday was Walker's shortest start of the season, and four Phillies relievers had to cover the last five frames. So he knows his outings need to last longer moving forward.
“As a starter, us having to use the bullpen that much in the first game of the series, it's not really acceptable for me,” Walker said. “Just got to be better, try to get quicker outs. It's a tough team, a good lineup over there. They're playing really good baseball. They didn't chase a whole lot today, and they fouled off a lot of good pitches. It was a tough lineup today.”
An update on Sánchez
Thomson said left-hander Cristopher Sánchez’s pregame catch was “very good,” and he’ll throw a bullpen session Sunday. Thomson named righty Zack Wheeler as Tuesday night’s starter at home, but it appears the Phillies won’t lose Sánchez (left forearm soreness) to the IL.
The rotation behind Wheeler is still TBD.