Phillies’ Taijuan Walker Exits Game Early, To Be Examined Further

One of the Phillies' big offseason free agent additions, Taijuan Walker, was removed from Wednesday's win over the Mariners due to right forearm tightness.

He was lifted after surrendering a pair of homers, five runs on five hits, and a walk in just four innings.  He threw 68 pitches and struck out six batters.

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As Phillies beat writer Scott Lauber from the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets, Walker will be examined further on Thursday.

He adds the manager Rob Thomson said the early exit was "precautionary" and that the team is unconcerned.

It's not great news for a Phillies starting rotation that has struggled during this first month of the season to go deep into games.  Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler have not been top of the rotation type of pitchers thus far. Ranger Suárez still hasn't appeared in a game as he works his way back from a left elbow strain and now Walker could be heading for an injured list visit.

As for Suárez he will be making a minor league rehab start on Thursday and could make his season debut sometime in mid-May.  Thomson said Suárez would make three minor league rehab starts before joining the rotation.

The team is lucky the bullpen has pitched so well recently, as our buddy Bob Wankel from Crossing Broad points out.

The Phillies pen has allowed just two earned runs over 32 innings and has been pretty dominating since April 16.

Let's hope the news on Walker is good. The team brought him in to add more depth to the rotation and he had pitched well in the four games he started with a 2-1 record and an ERA of 3.80 prior to Wednesday's outing.