Phillies, Taijuan Walker lose to Nationals after rough first inning

Taijuan Walker struggled in his first start of the season on Monday as the Phillies lost to the Nationals, 13-2. Walker’s night, which concluded after allowing seven runs in 4 2/3 innings, got off to a rough start that he and his team didn’t recover from.

Walker faced 10 batters and allowed four runs on five hits in the first inning. The Nationals put one hard-hit ball in play in the frame — a groundout to Walker by Brady House. The rest of the balls put in play by Washington in the first weren’t considered hard hits but found areas where defenders couldn’t field them.

A leadoff walk by James Wood and a weakly-hit double down the third-base line by Luis García Jr. started the top of the first. Those were followed by a fielder’s choice and three straight singles to give the Nationals a 3-0 lead. A sacrifice fly by Jorbit Vivas made it 4-0.

Perhaps the most perplexing part of the inning came next and ended with Phillies manager Rob Thomson getting ejected.

With two outs and runners on first and second, Nationals nine-hole hitter Joey Wiemer grounded a ball to the right side of the infield. The ball was fielded by a diving Bryce Harper, who tossed it to Walker covering first base. Wiemer was called out. But since it was a bang-bang play, Walker fired the ball to catcher Rafael Marchán, who tagged Drew Millas between third base and home plate just in case. Millas had started the play at second and slowed down after rounding third as Wiemer was called out.

Washington challenged the out call at first base. It was overturned. But instead of Millas being ruled out, he was returned to third base to load the bases for the top of the Nationals’ lineup. Thomson came storming out of the dugout and was immediately ejected by first-base umpire Marvin Hudson; managers aren’t allowed to argue decisions made by replay review.

Walker struck out the next batter, Woods, to get out of the inning. But the damage was done. More followed.

Washington continued to put the ball in play against Walker and was rewarded with three more runs over the next two innings. Walker faced 29 total batters on the night and allowed 24 balls to be put in play. It was death by a thousand paper cuts for the Phillies’ starter.

The Nationals scored their last two runs against Walker in the third inning without the ball leaving the infield on a pair of run-scoring plays; the Phillies’ defense couldn’t turn double plays on either.

Altogether, Walker allowed 10 hits — eight singles and two doubles. Only one hit, a double by Woods in the fifth inning, had an exit velocity more than 95 mph.

Meanwhile, the Phillies continued to struggle on offense, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Their two runs came on a two-run home run by Marchán in the fifth inning. It was the team’s first home run since Opening Day.

The series continues tomorrow with Andrew Painter scheduled to make his highly-anticipated major league debut. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. ET.