Mets, Taijuan Walker shut out Rockies for series victory
Mets starting pitcher Taijuan Walker turns to make a pick-off attempt against the Rockies' Yonathan Daza in the first inning of a game Sunday in Denver. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
DENVER — Coors Field, probably more than any other ballpark in the majors, is ripe to become a main character in any given game here. The thin mountain air is infamous for the way it makes batted balls fly farther — and the way it often makes pitches move less — turning an otherwise normal-looking stadium into a haven for hitters and a nightmare for pitchers.
Except for, apparently, Taijuan Walker.
Walker led the Mets to a 2-0 win over the Rockies — and their 11th series victory in 13 tries this season — by tossing seven innings Sunday. Between working into and out of jams in his first and final frames, Walker mostly cruised, striking out six, walking two and at one point retiring a dozen consecutive batters.
That lowered Walker’s lifetime Coors Field ERA to a remarkable 2.03, the lowest among active pitchers (minimum four starts; he has made five). But that doesn’t mean he enjoys coming here.
“No. I don’t think anyone does,” Walker said. “I guess I’ve had some success here. But I don’t like pitching here.
“I just know what pitches work here. The curveball and the splitter are two good pitches here. I was throwing the slider early but just wasn’t getting the swings and misses and the action on it, so we just stuck with the curveball, fastball and splitter today.”
Walker faced an early test when C.J. Cron’s two-out single in the opening inning put runners at the corners. Brandon Nimmo’s throw to third, trying to nab Yonathan Daza, skipped away from Luis Guillorme, but Walker was there to back it up — a play manager Buck Showalter highlighted as key. Had Walker not been in position, Colorado might have scored.
“If I’m not there, the run scores, I’m mad at myself and everything can spiral from there,” Walker said.
The Rockies (19-21) put two on with nobody out in the seventh, but Walker again escaped. He got Jose Iglesias to bounce into a double play and Brian Serven to ground out hard to Guillorme, one of a few smooth plays he made.
“You know if the ball is put in play, we have guys who are going to go out there and dive for balls and try to make every single play,” Walker said.
Lefthander Austin Gomber (seven innings, two runs) stifled the Mets until the sixth, when shoddy defense aided their two-run rally. Nimmo singled to right and — after Randal Grichuk let it go between his legs — ended up on third.
“A lot of people don’t end up on third,” Showalter said. “They go, ‘Single, I’m trotting on a one-hopper, oh he missed it, I’ll go to second.’ Getting to third puts a lot of pressure on.”
Francisco Lindor added: “That was huge. We won the game right there.”
Well, not quite yet. Lindor shot an RBI single through the left side of a drawn-in infield to give the Mets the lead. After Jeff McNeil blooped a double down the leftfield line, Pete Alonso brought in Lindor with a groundout to first.
And that was all the scoring on the day. This was the second time in four years that the Rockies have been shut out at home.
“Good things [from the pitching staff],” Showalter said. “We’ve been seeing it for most of the year.”
The Mets (28-15) have won the next game after each of their past 14 losses. That is a franchise record.
“Nobody cares about the past,” Lindor said. “When we show up tomorrow in San Francisco, nobody cares about what we did today.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
