Phillies manager Rob Thomson talked earlier this season about seeing things he’d never seen before in his many years in MLB. He can add a couple more things to the list as the Phillies fell to the Washington Nationals, 5-4, in the series-opener at Citizens Bank Park.
In a game that saw three Taijuan Walker pickoff attempts overturned – two to outs, one to safe – and closer Jhoan Duran blow his first save opportunity for the Phillies in seven tries, the Phillies got excellent pitching.
That is if you take away the first and last innings.
Early on, it didn’t appear to be the Phillies’ night and certainly not Walker’s, as the Nationals tagged him for three runs in a first inning that included two walks, a pickoff at first, a three-run home run and an astounding 38 pitches. In Duran’s ninth inning, he gave up a double to Dylan Crews and a game-tying single to Dayle Lile, who went to second on the throw home by Brandon Marsh, which hit Crews, not enabling catcher J.T. Realmuto to secure the ball. Lile then stole third and scored easily when Realmuto’s throw sailed into left.
The Phillies have been playing so well lately that it seems like it had to take some crazy events for them to lose for the first time in five games.
After a rough first inning, Walker pitched four more and faced the minimum 12 batters. It was an adjustment he made that allowed him to overcome the lengthy first, but the three-run damage had already been done.
“Just the two walks,” Walker said of his first inning troubles. “I feel like when I get in trouble a lot is when I start walking guys. It seemed like they were a little more patient in that first inning. The splitters that they were taking and just out of the zone a little too much. After the first inning I started getting in the zone more and it seemed like they were being more aggressive and putting the ball in play more.”
Walker says his cutter just wasn’t there to begin the night but it came back to him with a little work.
“It was a little off in the bullpen,” he said. “I thought the first inning it would be better but it was just off a little bit, made a little adjustment after the first and it started picking up. Just a wrist adjustment, a stiffer wrist.
“It was really just not commanding the zone in that first inning and just not throwing enough strikes. I really didn’t know how many I threw. I didn’t know that. It didn’t feel like 38. I know it was a longer inning…