Battered again, the Phillies hit only a new low — and Taijuan Walker's spot looks tenuous

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They reduced the time between his final throw in the bullpen and when he stepped onto the Citizens Bank Park mound. Walker even changed his warmup music to Montell Jordan’s classic hit “This Is How We Do It.” Four minutes after his first pitch, the Atlanta Braves had loaded the bases with no outs. They scored two runs just nine minutes into the game. They had seven runs in a mere 36 minutes. “Having the offense down 7-0, it’s not easy to ask them to climb back in,” Walker said. “So I’m just not doing my part there and not giving them a chance.” It ended Braves 9, Phillies 0 — and the Phillies have officially lost the benefit of the doubt after an offseason that did not enact much change. The Phillies (8-11) are three games under .500 for the first time since June 6, 2023. They have the worst run differential in the National League (minus-34). They have been reduced to background noise in April. The loudest cheers Friday night were for Gritty, who danced on the dugout during the seventh-inning stretch. The Phillies have lost three consecutive games by six or more runs for the first time since 2018. It’s the first time since 1989 (and only second time since 1947) that they’ve lost three straight at home by that margin. They have lost five of their first 19 games by six runs or more for the first time since 1986. It’s the first time they have allowed nine runs in three straight home games since 1973. The worst part for many of the 43,048 people in attendance Friday night was that their game ticket was also their concert ticket; they had to endure nine innings of Phillies baseball to see Jordan Davis perform afterward. Losing is one thing. Three straight uncompetitive games at Citizens Bank Park is another. “It’s frustrating,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “We’re not used to doing that, especially in this ballpark. So we got to turn this thing around someway, somehow.” It is a tough look right now. If Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber or Trea Turner don’t do anything, the rest of the lineup looks far too beatable. So it is unfair to pin all of this on Walker. He is an easy target. But he might be collateral damage for this lackluster Phillies start. Thomson committed to Walker pitching again on Wednesday at Wrigley Field. Sort of. Maybe. “We haven’t … yeah,” Thomson said. “As of now, yeah.” “We haven’t discussed anything else,” Thomson said. About 10 minutes after the manager finished his postgame interview with reporters, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and general manager Preston Mattingly visited Thomson’s office. The front office might have taken that opportunity to discuss Walker’s future. His 9.16 ERA is the highest through the first four starts by a Phillies pitcher who made the opening rotation since Paul Byrd (10.19) in 2000. This is not a long-term problem; Zack Wheeler will return to the rotation sometime next weekend. He will make one more minor-league start, Sunday at Double-A Reading. The Phillies will not alter that plan. By the second inning, fans chanted, “We want Wheeler!” They’ll see him. Just not yet. The Phillies look lifeless; that’ll happen when they allow a ton of runs and don’t score. “There’s always a sense of urgency,” Schwarber said. “It’s on a daily basis. It doesn’t matter if you’re on a 20-game winning streak or a 20-game losing streak. There’s always a sense of urgency to go out there and win a baseball game. So that’s the mindset that we always have. And you could be hitting .400, there’s a sense of urgency because there’s another game tomorrow. And the same thing if you’re hitting .100. Always a sense of urgency. There’s a game tomorrow.” If there is truly a sense of urgency, then Walker’s place on the roster would be subject to debate. He’s allowed 11 first-inning runs this season. That is more than 16 teams have allowed this season. His outings suck the energy from games. This is not a new phenomenon. Walker has an 8.40 ERA in the first inning since signing a four-year, $72 million deal with the Phillies in 2023. No pitcher in MLB has permitted more first-inning earned runs (66) than Walker has since 2023.  And there are 66 pitchers who have made more starts than him in that span. Walker was throwing harder in Friday’s first inning. He could not command it. “I wanted to come out firing; maybe I was overthrowing a little bit,” Walker said. “A little erratic with everything. I just wasn’t too aggressive in the zone. The walks right now, I feel like they’ve been killing me and just extending the innings.” When Walker is bumped from the rotation, whether it’s before or after Wheeler returns, it is difficult to see where he fits on this roster. The Phillies could carry him as the most expensive long reliever in baseball. But if he cannot pitch effectively in the first inning of outings, his value out of the bullpen is infinitesimal. To Walker’s credit, he looked like a sunk cost in August 2024 and recovered to give the Phillies 123 2/3 innings of slightly above-average pitching in 2025. The Phillies might have been reluctant to eat more than $36 million by cutting ties with Walker near the end of the 2024 season. Now, they owe him less than $18 million. It’s more palatable — if they choose that path. The Phillies are not blessed with robust rotation depth, but it’s becoming harder to argue that whatever they have in reserve is not better than Walker. It is rather bleak, though. Alan Rangel has a 1.66 ERA in four starts at Triple-A Lehigh Valley, but he’s walked too many batters. Jean Cabrera, also on the 40-man roster, has an 8.03 ERA in his first three starts. Veterans Bryse Wilson and Tucker Davidson have struggled. Connor Gillispie, signed to a minor-league deal during spring training, had not allowed a run in 13 innings for Lehigh Valley — but he surrendered seven runs in a start Friday night against St. Paul. The Phillies could have signed the guy they faced Friday night, Martín Pérez, because Atlanta put him on waivers earlier in the week. The Braves made a bet that no one would absorb the veteran lefty’s $3.5 million contract. They were right. Pérez re-signed with the Braves, rejoined them on Friday, then fired six scoreless innings against the Phillies. Even worse: A lefty named José Suarez, who lugged an 8.64 ERA into Friday’s game, followed Pérez with three scoreless innings. The Phillies, as a team, are now hitting .179/.280/.275 against left-handed pitching. They will face Chris Sale, one of the best lefties in the sport, on Saturday night. Maybe they won’t be blown out. “I don’t think that the score should really dictate the way that we try to go about our at-bats,” Schwarber said, “and the way we try and go out and compete.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Matt Gelb is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Philadelphia Phillies. He has covered the team since 2010 while at The Philadelphia Inquirer, including a yearlong pause from baseball as a reporter on the city desk. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and Central Bucks High School West.