{"id":42979,"date":"2025-05-21T05:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T05:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/42979\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T05:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T05:13:09","slug":"phillies-pushing-luzardo-and-hes-delivering-matches-the-flow-of-our-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/42979\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies pushing Luzardo and he’s delivering \u2014 \u2018Matches the flow of our team’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phillies pushing Luzardo and he’s delivering \u2014 \u2018Matches the flow of our team’<\/a> originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia<\/a><\/p>\n

DENVER \u2014 In Jesus Luzardo, the Phillies knew they were getting a lefty with upside who could miss bats and had the potential to pitch at the top of a rotation.<\/p>\n

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But 5-0 with a 1.95 ERA through 10 starts? After transitioning from a last-place team that draws under 10,000 fans per game to a club in win-now mode with as crazed a fanbase as you\u2019ll find?<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely thought it was possible but I know that it might come as a surprise to a lot of people,\u201d Luzardo said after striking out 10 Rockies over six innings to help the Phillies improve to a National League-best 30-18.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a struggle at times in my career but I think a little change of scenery at times is great. Just a breath of fresh air being around a good group of guys here. Nothing against the places I\u2019ve been, it\u2019s just a little different here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Phillies banged out 17 hits for a second straight game to beat the Rockies, 7-4, on Tuesday night. Luzardo\u2019s evening began with a 10-pitch, 1-2-3 first inning but he threw 72 pitches over the next three innings.<\/p>\n

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A six-inning start appeared unlikely when he began the fifth at 82 pitches but Luzardo recorded the first out on one pitch and struck out the next two.<\/p>\n

The lefty came back to the dugout at 94 pitches and told pitching coach Caleb Cotham he wanted to go another. It meant something to him and the team on a night like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe saved some of our bullpen because there\u2019s quite a few guys who if we had to use them, they wouldn\u2019t be available tomorrow,\u201d manager Rob Thomson said. \u201cI love him. He\u2019s not gonna give in. He\u2019s gonna fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pushed him tonight. It\u2019s not something I like to do because he\u2019s coming back on regular rest for Sunday but just to save the bullpen, he did a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Luzardo threw 105 pitches, exceeding 100 for the fourth time in his last five starts. The most he\u2019s ever done it in a season is five times.<\/p>\n

The Phillies are testing him. They want to protect Luzardo after he missed the second half of 2024 with a back injury but they aren\u2019t using kid gloves.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing that\u2019s shown me he\u2019s slowing down,\u201d Thomson said.<\/p>\n

Bryce Harper, who doubled twice, gushed about his first-year teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say enough how smart he is,\u201d Harper said. \u201cIn the clubhouse, out there, he\u2019s always thinking about what he needs to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said it a million times, I\u2019m glad he\u2019s on our team. I faced him multiple times when he was in Miami and it was always a tough game for us.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe way he goes out there, his demeanor, it matches the flow of our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

By going six, Luzardo enabled Thomson to use just two relievers, Jose Ruiz and Max Lazar. Jordan Romano warmed up during the bottom of the ninth as the Rockies scored two runs in Lazar\u2019s second inning but Lazar recorded the final out after a mound visit from Cotham.<\/p>\n

The Phillies have won their first two games at Coors Field while also resting Romano, Matt Strahm and Orion Kerkering each night. They\u2019ll have a full bullpen ready Wednesday behind Taijuan Walker.<\/p>\n

The offense is averaging nearly two hits per inning in the series, 34 in all. On Tuesday, six players had multiple hits and eight either drove in a run or scored. The Phillies lead the Mets by 1\u00bd games in the NL East and have picked up 6\u00bd games on them since being swept at Citi Field the third week of April.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of hits in this ballpark,\u201d Harper said of Coors Field, where the Phils play twice more this week before moving on to Sacramento to face the skidding Athletics.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team, it\u2019s a lot of fun when we\u2019re hitting on all cylinders. I think we\u2019re doing that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phillies pushing Luzardo and he’s delivering \u2014 \u2018Matches the flow of our team’ originally appeared on NBC Sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,1207,14092,6,1098,1103,14093,778,4,4681,144,25,4216,40,4874,168,1544,235,812],"class_list":{"0":"post-42979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bryce-harper","10":"tag-caleb-cotham","11":"tag-jesus-luzardo","12":"tag-jordan-romano","13":"tag-matt-strahm","14":"tag-max-lazar","15":"tag-miami","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-orion-kerkering","18":"tag-philadelphia","19":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","20":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","21":"tag-phillies","22":"tag-rob-thomson","23":"tag-rockies","24":"tag-taijuan-walker","25":"tag-team","26":"tag-the-mets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114544115960248487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}