Taijuan Walker and Phillies’ bats struggle in 13-2 blowout loss to Nationals in series-opener

Nine batters had been to the plate. Four runs were in. And now, not only did an overturned call extend the first inning, but a runner was allowed to retake third base after being tagged out.

That’s when Rob Thomson lost it.

Never mind that managers aren’t permitted to contest the verdict of a replay challenge. Thomson bolted from the Phillies’ dugout anyway, got ejected on the spot, and berated crew chief Marvin Hudson before watching the rest of a 13-2 humiliation by the Washington Nationals from the clubhouse.

So … how was your Monday?

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“It’s one of those nights,” Thomson said after Taijuan Walker dropped the Phillies down a 7-0 hole in a game that ended with utilityman Dylan Moore flinging 39-mph pitches to get the last two outs. “We’ve got to shake it off and come out here tomorrow and play better.”

Make it three losses in a row for the Phillies after an opening-day victory last Thursday that seems so much longer ago, probably because they haven’t led since then. Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber went 0-for-8 and are a combined 3-for-32 with 12 strikeouts. Trea Turner is 3-for-18.

Harper, Schwarber, and Turner are going to hit. Really, they will. And the Phillies got off to a 1-3 start as recently as 2024, when they won 95 games and the National League East crown. The sky isn’t actually falling.

All of a sudden, though, it won’t be enough Tuesday night for Andrew Painter to make the most highly anticipated major-league debut by a Phillies pitcher in 20 years. He also must stop a losing skid.

No pressure, kid.

Walker gave up seven runs, the most in a game by a Phillies starter since Jesús Luzardo’s pitch-tipping misadventures early last season. The Phillies trailed 4-0 after the first inning, 5-0 after the second, and 7-0 after the third.

Oh, and they didn’t score against a journeyman lefty named Foster Griffin until backup catcher Rafael Marchán’s two-run homer in the fifth inning.

It was no wonder that 35,609 paying customers began booing in the first inning.

“I feel like I kind of executed when I needed to,” Walker said. “They’re an aggressive team. They like to swing, and they just found the holes today. Some days are like that.”

To be fair, the Nationals didn’t hit Walker hard. Seriously. Only one of their 10 hits against him in 4⅔ innings, — James Wood’s double in the fifth inning — registered above 95 mph. The average exit velocity of their five first-inning hits was 83 mph.

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But Walker didn’t make many bats miss. He threw 99 pitches and got only six swings and misses. He scraped 94 mph in the first inning before his velocity nosedived, with his fastball and sinker averaging only 91.5 and 90.9 mph, down from 92.2 and 92 last season.

Walker attributed it to fatigue. He threw 28 pitches in the first inning, including five after the call that got Thomson booted.

It all started when Walker was late in covering first base on Joey Wiemer’s two-out grounder. Wiemer was initially called out, but realizing it was a close play, Walker turned and threw to home plate, where Marchán tagged out Drew Millas along the third-base line.

The call at first base was reversed on the replay challenge. And because Millas was tagged after the play was dead, the replay officials in New York sent him back to third, loading the bases and drawing Thomson’s ire.

Thomson contended that Millas was being waved home by the third base coach and had the intention of scoring.

“I guess my question would be, if Tai doesn’t throw the ball to the plate and [Millas] keeps running and touches home plate and they go to review and he’s safe [at first], does he score?” Thomson said. “I just want an explanation — what’s going on here? That’s all.”

Thomson said he didn’t get an explanation from Hudson. And upon leaving the dugout, he was automatically ejected.

In calmer moments, Thomson praises Walker’s flexibility in shuttling between the bullpen and rotation last season. Walker seems destined for a similar role now. He might make only two more starts before Zack Wheeler completes his faster-than-expected recovery from thoracic outlet decompression surgery and rejoins the rotation.

Of greater concern might be the Phillies’ struggles against left-handed pitching.

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All the caveats apply about a minuscule four-game sample. But Schwarber and Harper, the team’s most dangerous hitters, bat from the left side. In January, the Phillies tried to sign free-agent slugger Bo Bichette, a sign that club officials believed another right-handed hitter was needed.

And now, through four games, the Phillies are 10-for-72 against lefties. They faced lefty starters in each of the last three games — and lost all three.

“I don’t think that we look into right, left, anything like that,” Schwarber said. “It’s more about being able to work your at-bat and work what you want to swing at, what you don’t want to swing at. It’s hard to chase a result, especially at the plate. You have to chase the process of it.”

Said Thomson: “We’ll be fine.”

Probably. But keep checking back.