Walker tosses five scoreless frames

Taijuan Walker is putting a bad start to the season behind him.

Walker (2-2) surrendered two hits and struck out seven over five innings as Class A Clinton silenced Cedar Rapids, 2-0, on Thursday.

The Mariners' first-round pick last June had trouble with his command, walking three and hitting a batter. He ran into some trouble early, issuing a free pass to David Harris with two outs in the first inning. Harris promptly stole second base and Walker committed an error trying to pick the runner off second. Brandon Decker drew a walk before Walker ended the frame by getting Jeremy Cruz to ground back to the mound.

After struggling in his first two starts of the season, the 18-year-old right-hander has been sharper, allowing three earned runs over his last 16 innings and lowering his ERA to 4.03. Walker has notched 30 strikeouts, and he has held Midwest League batters to a .264 average in his first full season as a professional.

Walker continued a season-long trend of getting his infielders a lot of work, recording six ground-ball outs, including one double play. The lone out in the air came on a popout to short. For the season, Walker's ground-ball to fly-ball ratio stands at 3.71.

The California native made his debut in 2010, going 1-1 with a 1.29 ERA in four Arizona Summer League outings.

Mickey Wiswall, who had a successful debut season after being drafted in the seventh round by Seattle last year, was 2-for-5 with a run scored. Fellow 2010 draftee Stefan Romero had an RBI single and stole two bases for the LumberKings.

Jessie Nava allowed three hits and fanned two over the final two innings of the game to record his first save of the season.