Loud boos followed the Philadelphia Phillies as they exited Citizens Bank Park on Friday night. The Phillies failed to put themselves on the scoreboard, as their record dropped to 8-11 after the humiliating 9-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves. With pitching that extensively struggled to hold off the Braves’ lineup, the Phillies starter has shed light on his shortcomings.

In the final year of his four-year, $72 million contract, Taijuan Walker has struggled in all four of his starts this season. Against the Braves, Walker gave up 7 runs in 7hits, with 2 homers and 3 walks in the four innings he pitched. With a 9.16 ERA so far in 2026, Walker has been costly for the Phillies, especially in the first inning of his previous three starts, with a 27.00 ERA. According to the Inquirer Sports, even an altered pregame routine could not alleviate his struggles with command. Walker also admitted the same to the media outlet.

“I wanted to come out firing. Maybe just overthrowing a little bit. A little erratic with everything,” he admitted to the Inquirer Sports. “Just wasn’t too aggressive in the zone. I feel like the walks right now have been killing me, and extending the innings.”

The Phillies experimented with ramping up the intensity of his pitches at the end of his pregame routine and a shorter layoff time. It helped in increasing the velocity of his fastball to 94mph, but did nothing for his command. Even before the first out of the game, Walker had issued two walks and a single, but held off the Braves’ lineup to two runs in the first.

But it was the second inning that turned disastrous, making the Phillies trail 6-0 by the end of it. Walker gave up four runs on four hits, including a three-run homer off Austin Riley. Dominic Smith extended the lead further with a solo shot in the third. Walker ended his four-inning stint with the Phillies trailing 7-0.

Out of the 89 pitches Walker threw, 50 were strikes. He delivered first-pitch strikes only 48% of the time, falling behind in the count multiple times. The Inquirer Sports reported that the Braves hitters chased only 20% of the pitches Walker threw out of the zone. He only struck out 4 times during Friday’s game.

“I’m not trying to go out there and strike out 15 people. My goal is to try to give the team the best chance to win. I haven’t done that yet,” Walker told the Inquirer Sports.

With Zack Wheeler’s return in the cards, as he is scheduled to make his fifth rehab start in Double-A Reading, Walker is likely to head to the bullpen. However, he would probably have one more start before that against the Chicago White Sox.

While the Phillies’ pitchers failed to hold off the Braves’ lineup, the same cannot be said about Atlanta’s pitching. The Phillies continued to struggle against lefties, hitting at only .179. During their shutout loss against southpaw Martín Pérez, the Phillies’ lineup only managed four hits.

Manager Rob Thomson noted, “We hit some balls hard. Didn’t have much to show for it. On the pitching side, four walks and four home runs. That’s tough to come back from.”

Following the loss, Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber put forward a straightforward assessment of his team.

Kyle Schwarber shares insight after Braves’ loss

Kyle Schwarber is slashing .209/.369/.522 this season with 6 homers in 19 games, going 14-for-67. On Friday, the slugger did not get a single hit in his 4 at-bats against the Atlanta Braves, but struck out twice.

Among the only four hits against Pérez, three came from Bryce Harper with two singles and a one-out triple. But he was left at third base at the end of the third, as Edmundo Sosa fouled out swinging while J.T Realmuto lined out.

The Phillies hitters lost a considerable opportunity to score at the bottom of the first, when they were only trailing by 2-0. With one out and the bases loaded, Sosa and Realmuto got out one after another to end the inning.

Schwarber and Harper’s deep hits ended up being flyouts into the warning track instead of home runs.

As the Phillies’ losing streak tallied up to three games, Schwarber bluntly pointed out their failure in effective execution on Friday.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to executing,” Schwarber observed, according to the Inquirer Sports. “You just got to be able to execute. And we didn’t execute tonight, and they did.”

The Phillies capped off the game as Schwarber grounded out, following Trea Turner’s two-out single. Though according to manager Thomson, it’s tough to come back from four walks and four home runs, the Phillies lineup did not even leave a mark on the scoreboard.