A tough return for Walker as Phillies pitching struggles continue to stand out

There’s a Richie Ashburn statue in Ashburn Alley at Citizens Bank Park, a double-barreled reminder of the impact he had on the franchise as both player and broadcaster. But his final season in uniform was the MVP of the expansion Mets who set a record for ineptitude with 120 losses.

Whitey liked to tell the story of manager Casey Stengel calling a meeting after the final game to assure the players that none could be singled out for what had happened. He consoled them by stressing that each and every one had contributed.

When the Phillies were soaring majestically above baseball with the best record in the game earlier this season, there were plenty of reasons why. Just as there’s a lengthy ledger of causes for why they’ve encountered an extended stretch of turbulence since.

But, at the risk of outrageously oversimplifying, consider this:

After beating the Athletics on July 13, they were 29 games over .500 at 62-33.

Their combined starting pitcher’s earned run average was 3.23.

Since then they’ve gone 7-17 while the aggregate rotation ERA has been 4.66.

Not only that, in the first 82 games of the season, the starter pitched a minimum of seven innings 26 times (31.7 percent). In 37 games since, it’s happened just three times (8.1 percent). Which, of course, has a ripple effect on the bullpen.

All of this is to say that there was an abnormal amount of importance placed on Taijuan Walker’s first start in more than seven weeks Tuesday night against the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park, as well as the two-inning simulated game lefthander Ranger Suárez threw before 42,901 empty blue seats earlier in the afternoon.

Rob Thomson, speaking three hours before first pitch, said it would be “huge” to get a dependable Walker back for the stretch run. “He can be a force when he’s on,” the manager said.

Maybe next time.

Working on a pitch limit, he used them by throwing 76 pitches (just 44 for strikes) in four innings, further taxing the bullpen. He gave up three runs on four hits, including a loud home run by Marlins third baseman Jake Burger in the third, and three walks. He also struck out five.

Not terrible. But not good enough on a night when the Phillies' offense got just one runner past second all evening. The last-place Marlins were never seriously challenged on the way to a 5-0 win.

Walker’s Rosetta Stone, the ability to throw an effective split-fingered fastball, was supposed to have been addressed by allowing his inflamed right index finger to heal. And he used it 27 times (35.5 percent), twice as much as he did in 10 starts before going on the IL, according to Baseball Savant.

As he’s inclined to do, Thomson evaluated the outing through Phillies-colored glasses. “The problem in the first inning was two walks,” he said. “I thought he was really good in the second. Gives up a home run to a guy who’s hit (13) homers since the break. And I thought he was better in the fourth. Velocity was up. Touched 93. I thought the split had a lot of bottom to it and he threw it a lot. Which was good to see.”

Walker was pleased with the splitter and suggested that it had so much movement that it helped lead to the first-inning walks to Burger and designated hitter Jesus Sanchez. Both scored.

“I thought (the split) was moving really well,” he said. “That first inning it was moving a lot and my sights were just too far down. I want it to be down but after the first inning I was able to throw more strikes. Besides the first inning, I thought I was pretty solid.”

He added that he also might have been a little too amped up in the first inning. All he can do now is try to build on that Sunday against the Nationals.   

The other shoe that needs to drop is Suárez, who was one of the very best starters in baseball before being slowed by back problems before the All-Star break.

Thomson offered an upbeat assessment of his progress. The next step is for him to throw again Sunday, either in another sim game or a rehab start at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. “The benefit of Lehigh is the competition. The benefit of doing it here is we can control the ups and the pitch counts. We can get his pitch count up so potentially the next one is with us.

 “Potentially,” he stressed.

When both are back in the rotation, Thomson strongly hinted that he’ll go to a 6-man rotation, including Tyler Phillips, which will give each starter an extra day of rest and, in theory at least, keep them fresher for the postseason. That’s especially important this year as Suárez and Cristopher Sánchez, notably, have carried heavier workloads than they’ve been accustomed to.

Walker understands how important it is for him to make a contribution the last seven weeks of the regular season.   

“We built ourselves a pretty good cushion, but we definitely need to start playing better baseball,” he said. “Usually I’m pretty efficient. I can get into the sixth, seventh inning. That’s our job as starters is to go six, seven, eight innings and save the bullpen as much as possible.”