After blistering start to spring, Taijuan Walker struggles for third straight outing
Mar 25, 2017, 4:10 PM
Arizona Diamondbacks' Taijuan Walker throws during spring training baseball workouts, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
(AP Photo/Matt York)
The first three starts of spring training for Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Taijuan Walker couldn’t have gone much better.
He allowed three hits combined, no runs and one walk, striking out 13 over nine innings.
His next two starts, however, couldn’t have gone any more differently, giving up 13 hits and seven runs combined, and the struggles continued on Saturday.
Walker pitched 4.2 innings in a 7-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, with the Angels scoring six runs on eight hits off Walker, three of those runs being earned.
Over the course of the 13.1 innings the 24-year-old has pitched in his last three outings, he’s allowed 21 hits and 10 earned runs with 15 strikeouts. He’s given up at least three earned runs in each outing.
Walker was unable to establish any sort of stability in the early going. Albert Pujols hit a two-run home run off Walker in the bottom of the first, the third long ball sacrificed by Walker this spring.
A throwing error by Jake Lamb made the Angels’ three straight singles after Pujols’ homer hurt more, adding on two more runs and an early 4-0 deficit for the D-backs after one inning.
Walker recovered, recording seven straight outs, but another Lamb error in the fourth allowed Andrelton Simmons to reach base, leading to another home run for Los Angeles, this time from catcher Carlos Perez.
Walker was announced as one of the five members of the starting rotation by D-backs manager Torey Lovullo earlier this week. Lovullo would not commit to any order in the rotation besides Zack Greinke at No. 1.
