PORT ST. LUCIE — After beginning camp in cautionary mode, Taijuan Walker appears ready to leave with a roar.
In a strong performance Thursday night, the right-hander fired 3 ²/₃ scoreless innings in the Mets’ 7-3 exhibition loss to the Nationals at Clover Park. He departed after throwing 54 pitches, over which he allowed three hits and struck out two.
Walker underwent January surgery to remove damaged cartilage from his right knee, leaving the Mets to proceed with extra care as camp began three weeks ago. But Walker has cleared just about every hurdle.
“It’s not over yet, but I feel confident where I’m at right now,” Walker said. “The knee feels great, the shoulder is building up still. My pitches feel really good.”
Walker will pitch a final time in spring training on Tuesday before his first start of the season on April 11 in Philadelphia.
“The goal is to be about five [innings], 75 [pitches] for my first start of the regular season,” Walker said. “I might be a little bit ahead of that, but we’ll see how I feel five days from now.”
Tomas Nido was deprived a home run when umpires ruled his drive off an advertisement tarp behind the fence in left-center in play.
Nido stopped at second base with a double. Instant replay isn’t used for spring training games, but the TV feed clearly showed Nido’s ball was a homer.
Buck Showalter protested the call but got nowhere. In Showalter’s postgame press conference it was mentioned that it’s spring training for the umpires, too.
“All four of them?” Showalter said.
Brandon Nimmo and Mark Canha each lost fly balls in the twilight (an error and double, respectively), allowing the Nationals to score twice against Seth Lugo in the fifth inning.
“The lights are better here than in the places we have played, I can tell you that,” Showalter said. “I was proud that they didn’t completely bail, hoping it would come into sight at some point. That’s a helpless feeling.”
Tylor Megill and David Peterson threw 78 and 73 pitches, respectively, in a simulated game.
Robinson Cano started at first base, as anticipated. The veteran infielder last played the position with the Mariners in 2018, when he started 10 games at first base.
“I know he’s capable of playing over there,” Showalter said. “I don’t want it to be, if we get caught in a bind, it’s cold turkey up in New York.”