PHILADELPHIA — Taijuan Walker was booed Monday at Citizens Bank Park when his name was read with the other Phillies pitchers for the home opener, to a degree impolite even by Philadelphia standards. Thursday, Walker strode off the mound to a partial standing ovation after six scoreless innings, ha ving just gotten Hunter Goodman to swing over a slider. The difference was about as stark as the tears his mother shed up in the stands – so many times last season, the bitter kind, as Citizens Bank Park booed her son, to Thursday’s tears of joy. “It’s part of the game for me,” Walker said of the boo-birds. “But my mom is here today, and I know she loved that. It made her feel good, so as long as she’s happy.” Walker was excellent in his first start of 2025, his first effort to put behind him a disastrous 2024, in a 3-1 Phillies win. He tossed six shutout innings, exiting to cheers, a dugout awaiting him on the top step and “about a billion” texts from his mom in the stands. “Really happy for him,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I’m really proud of the work he’s done in the offseason. He’s a great teammate. He’s always on the top step when he’s not pitching, always cheering on his team and he always competes. Just so happy for him.” They were not laborious, how-did-he-survive innings. They were quick, economical, at times dominant frames, Walker needing 74 pitches to get 18 outs. He scattered three hits, a walk and struck out four. “I think just his ability to get ahead of guys, and he mixed speeds really well today,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “I think he kept them off balance pretty well. He was able to really use all of his pitches really effectively throughout the whole game.” The win is Walker’s first since May 11, ending a string of six straight losses and 18 outings without a victory. Phillies starting pitchers allowed two earned runs in 18.1 innings in sweeping the Rockies. Walker stuck with a six-pitch mix, last year’s albatross of a four-seam fastball the least used of the bunch. His fastball velocity ticked up as high as 93.9 mph, and a sinker – which averaged 91.1 mph last season and on particularly bleak evenings struggled to break 90 – averaging 92.8 on this day. His secondary stuff was sharp, hammering righties with sliders and lefties with curveballs. He got three misses on six swings at the hook, a pitch that had a 36 percent whiff rate in 2023 that plummeted to 14.9 last year. His slider – reworked somewhat from what Statcast called a sweeper last year – induced soft contact, the average exit velocity on nine balls in play just 78.1 mph, down from an average of 85.1 last year. He allowed just two balls off the bat at 100 mph or more (though three, including Mickey Moniak’s triple, at 99). “They were aggressive today, so just mixed the slider a lot early and the cutter,” he said. “But everything was working today really well.” Walker was a workhorse in 2023, eating 172.2 innings with a 4.38 ERA and 15-6 record. But it was mostly smoke and mirrors. By the end of the season, he was the odd man out in the postseason plans. After some furor kicked up by comments after the NLCS on social media, Walker and the Phillies patched things up and refocused for him to fight for a spot in the 2024 rotation and justify the four-year, $72 million deal. But his appearances last season were few, far between and bad. His velocity down from the very start of spring and his stuff not sharp, Walker’s arm wasn’t right. And while he drew praise for his clubhouse presence despite three injured list stays, the stretch drive of the season was a countdown to an offseason strengthening routine. All the while, he remained a constant clubhouse and dugout presence, leading cheers from the top step. “People don’t see behind the clubhouse doors, what he means to the club and the little things that he does to help the team,” Thomson said. “It meant a lot.” Walker wasn’t exactly great this spring, with a 6.92 ERA over 13 innings, including a team-worst six home runs allowed. He only entered the rotation when Ranger Suarez’s back acted up, landing him on the IL. Walker was projected as a long-man or bulk innings provider in the ‘pen with spot starting duty when needed. And this start to the season may not alter that trajectory. But getting another effective arm is never a bad thing, and the emotional boost it provided to the team Thursday was a nice bonus. “You saw the whole dugout was pumped for him after that last inning,” Realmuto said. “Just to see him feeling that energy and being excited after his outing, that was really good for us to see, and we’re all proud of.  … Nobody likes to watch your teammates struggle, and we’ve all been through struggles. Seeing him go out there and be himself today, that was a lot of fun.” ...read more read less