Attacking with fastball serves Walker well

SEATTLE — Taijuan Walker was handed his fourth consecutive loss on Monday for the Mariners, but the 23-year-old deserved a better fate after dueling A’s lefty Rich Hill for six scoreless innings in an eventual 5-0 loss.

Walker didn’t get much help in this one as shortstop Chris Taylor’s two throwing errors in the eighth led to four unearned runs on a night the A’s only legitimate hit off the hard-throwing 23-year-old was a solo homer by Stephen Vogt in the seventh.

Though he fell to 2-4, Walker’s 2.70 ERA and 47 strikeouts with just nine walks in 50 innings tells a different story. And after a couple tough outings following a two-inning start in Houston when he was dealing with neck spasms, this strong 7 1/3-inning start looked more like the dominant young right-hander the Mariners saw the first month of the season.

“I wasn’t being aggressive the last couple starts with my fastball,” Walker said. “The game plan today was just to go right after them, attack them and throw strikes with my fastball.”

Mission accomplished as Walker came out firing 95-mph heat and maintained that throughout his 102-pitch outing, allowing just four hits and one …

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