PHILADELPHIA -- Taijuan Walker is a pitcher of extremes.

Take Tuesday night’s 1-0 victory over the Tigers at Citizens Bank Park. Walker allowed two hits in seven scoreless innings, striking out eight and walking three to help the Phillies win their fourth consecutive game. His four-seam fastball averaged 94.7 mph, up 1.6 mph from his season average. He had his best splitter of the year, generating a season-high 10 swings and misses. He did not allow a hit until one out in the fifth, the second consecutive night the Phillies carried a no-hitter at least into the fifth.

Compare that to last week’s start at Citi Field. Walker lasted just four innings because the Phillies could see he had nothing in the tank. His four-seam fastball averaged a season-low 92 mph, down 1.1 mph from his 2023 season average and 1.7 mph from his 2022 season average. He threw only one pitch 93 mph or harder. Previously, he had never thrown fewer than four in any start in his career.

So, from a troubling start last week in which almost everybody wondered whether he was healthy, to a superb start Tuesday in which everybody wonders if he can replicate this performance in the future.

Up, down.

Down, up.

Walker is 5-3 with a 5.04 ERA

“Those foul balls [turn into] swings and misses,” Walker said about Tuesday’s jump in velocity. “The splitter is a lot sharper and [the break comes] later. Today was the best my split has been all year. … The body just feels a lot better this time through. I was pretty stiff last time. I was able to have a good bullpen, and the body just felt really loose coming into today.”

Phillies manager Rob Thomson said before the game that Walker “always has some aches and pains with his body, but he just grinds through it.” But Thomson said he was encouraged by what the Phillies saw last weekend during Walker’s bullpen session at Nationals Park.

“He’s finding something, and I’m kind of excited to see him pitch,” he said.

Essentially, Walker said, the turnaround came down to this: moving his body.

“Just moving around a little bit more in the outfield, simulating some ground balls and stuff, just kind of getting my body moving more with sprints and stuff,” he said. “Just trying to be more athletic, really. I’ve felt like this the last couple years, yeah. Getting older. I’ve been doing it for a while now. I’ve just got to really make sure I’m moving around a lot out there.”

Walker, 30, is in the first year of a four-year, $72 million contract, so the Phillies need his body to stay right.

“You’ll see me out there, I’ll be doing ground balls with the infielders and stuff,” he said about future days between starts. “It’s just being athletic, I guess. I started doing that in '21. [Marcus] Stroman does it all the time, so we started doing it together. I did it last year a lot, catching balls at first base for the infielders and stuff.”

Kyle Schwarber hit a leadoff homer in the first inning. It was his third homer in June, which has historically been his best month.

He was happy to help Walker out.

“Those are the guys that are going to be key for us the whole year, our starting rotation, the way that they set the tone,” Schwarber said.