Phils’ Taijuan Walker, facing Marlins, has tough acts to follow

Following electric starts by two of his teammates, Philadelphia’s Taijuan Walker hopes to continue the momentum Saturday when the Phillies host the Miami Marlins.

Philadelphia has won two games in a row, thanks in large part to its dynamic starting pitching. Cristopher Sanchez struck out a career-high 12 in seven innings during a 6-4 win over the San Francisco Giants on Thursday, and Zack Wheeler followed that up with 13 strikeouts in seven innings Friday in a 7-2 win over the Marlins.

The Phillies had not had starting pitchers strike out 12 or more batters in consecutive games since Roy Halladay (14) and Cliff Lee (12) did it in April 2011.

“Competition’s a good thing sometimes,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said, smiling. “We’ve got a full bullpen (Saturday), and that’s always good to have on any day.”

Another reason for Thomson to smile is the emergence of Bryce Harper’s power stroke. Harper, a two-time National League MVP, has homered in three of the past four games after going deep in just one of his previous 15 contests.

“I thought the last week has been good,” Harper said. “I hit a couple balls really hard in Atlanta. I hit a couple balls (hard) this series as well. I think I’m on time.”

Harper’s home run on Friday — and six of the Phillies’ runs overall — came against Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara, who continues to try to find his form after missing last season as he recovered from Tommy John surgery.

“Maybe just a little bit of not getting those pitches down to an area you’d want for some chase, and just leaving them enough on the plate or in a spot where they could at least spoil it enough to foul it off,” Miami manager Clayton McCullough said. “We’ll go back and look at that and how we can execute at a better rate next time.”

Cal Quantrill (1-1, 5.79 ERA) will try to execute at a higher level when he takes the ball on Saturday for Miami. The right-hander has yet to work more than five innings through three starts this season, and he was erratic on Sunday against the Washington Nationals, allowing three runs, seven hits and five walks in five innings.

“Obviously, it wasn’t my best stuff,” Quantrill said. “I was having a hard time controlling all the hard pitches. I think that we did a really good job of making the pitch we had to make. Unfortunately, I put us in a lot of situations that were maybe not advantageous.”

Quantrill has made three lifetime starts against Philadelphia, going 1-0 with a 2.65 ERA.

His counterpart Saturday will be Walker (1-1, 2.30 ERA), who has faced the Marlins 15 times in his career, including 13 starts. He is 6-3 with a 3.56 ERA against Miami.

In his most recent outing, Walker gave up six runs (four earned) in five innings of a 10-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Monday. Those were the first runs the righty has allowed this season, as he tossed 10 2/3 scoreless innings over his first two starts.

“Just one inning that got away from me, and those six runs hurt us,” said Walker, who committed a key throwing error during San Francisco’s second-inning offensive burst. “I was able to settle down the next three innings, but that one inning just sped up on me.”

–Field Level Media