Taijuan Walker pitched four perfect innings Tuesday. The other wasn’t so perfect.
After retiring the first nine batters he faced — and before handling the final three — the Mets right-hander surrendered a monstrous fourth-inning solo homer to Aaron Judge. Then, after loading the bases, he walked Oswaldo Cabrera, who began the night batting only .136.
“I just got a little too quick,” Walker said after the Mets lost 4-2 to the Yankees in The Bronx. “I gave up the home run, it wasn’t a bad pitch — it just wasn’t the right pitch. Then a couple of hits and two walks. Stuff kind of sped up on me there and I didn’t slow it down. But still I was able to limit the damage and gave us a chance to win.”
A dejected Taijuan Walker heads back to the mound after giving up a solo homer to Aaron Judge (background) in the fourth inning of the Yankees’ 4-2 win over the Mets. APOverall, the outing was acceptable given that the Mets had their top relievers rested and Walker was returning from back spasms a week earlier that had ended his start in Atlanta after two innings.
On this night Walker lasted five innings and allowed two earned runs on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts and departed after 81 pitches.
Buck Showalter had the option of waiting until later in the week to start Walker or pitch him in the Subway Series and chose the latter because he wanted to get the right-hander back on the mound sooner rather than later. That meant bumping Jacob deGrom to Thursday, giving the Mets ace two extra days of rest following a 95-pitch outing last Thursday.
Andrew Benintendi’s single leading off the fourth gave the Yankees their first base runner against Walker. But the Yankees appeared sunk in the inning after DJ LeMahieu hit into a double play. Judge followed with his second homer in as many games, a 116 mph missile off the bat that landed deep in the left-field bleachers.
“It was supposed to be a sinker in,” Walker said. “It was well-located, but he hits fastballs really well and it just wasn’t the right pitch.
“We see he struggles with the changeups and sliders and we were throwing it and having some success with it, and we thought maybe we could sneak a fastball in there and get some weak contact, but he’s just a good fastball hitter.”
