Taijuan Walker made his spring training debut on Tuesday, and while there are still some things to work on, he knows what needs to be done.
Deuces were wild in Walker’s outing – he allowed two runs on two hits while walking two and striking out two in two innings of work.
Both of his runs were allowed in the second inning, but he spotted his mechanical flaws.
“That second inning, my mechanics were a little out of whack. I was kinda just over-striding, so my timing was off just a little bit. Just didn’t make a correction fast enough,” he said. “Spring training, first start out there, these are things we work on. Now I know. Get work in my bullpen. I thought it was pretty good. I thought I was good out there.”
Surely, it’s almost never ideal to have runners on base, but it’s inevitable. And Walker is happy he got to work out of the stretch on Tuesday.
“It was nice getting some traffic on the bases, too. When you throw live BP, you can’t really get that kind of action. So it was nice to have that and have those situations out there,” he said.
Walker was also happy with his split-change.
“It’s kinda been my go-to pitch,” he said. “My pitch that I feel comfortable with, that I feel like I can throw in any count. Especially when I get behind in the count, strikeout pitch. ... I like to either get ground balls early with it or a swing and miss late.”
The 28-year-old says he is on track to be fully ready by Opening Day, as his pitch count will get ramped up in each successive spring outing.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had a regular spring training, but I know if I get to 85-90 pitches I’ll be fine to go for the regular season, and we’re working our way up.”