{"id":799390,"date":"2026-09-08T02:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T02:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/799390\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T02:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T02:33:15","slug":"how-jesus-luzardo-used-two-game-plans-to-complete-his-shutout-of-the-braves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/799390\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jes\u00fas Luzardo used two game plans to complete his shutout of the Braves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jes\u00fas Luzardo took Labor Day to heart, giving his entire bullpen a day off in the Phillies\u2019 1-0 victory over the Braves on Monday.<\/p>\n

The reigning National League Pitcher of the Month pitched his first career complete, becoming the second Phillies pitcher<\/a> to throw a complete game shutout this season. The left-hander needed only 109 pitches and one hour and 51 minutes to do so.<\/p>\n

Kyle Schwarber\u2019s solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning was all the run production Luzardo needed as he pitched the Phillies to a split four-game series at home against their division rival.<\/p>\n

A great mix for Luzardo<\/p>\n

While the record books will show Luzardo with just one complete game shutout on the day, in practice, he took two distinct routes to get there, executing one game plan against hitters batting right-handed and another against Atlanta\u2019s three lefties.<\/p>\n

With Luzardo being a powerful left-handed pitcher, the Braves stacked the deck with six right-handed batters on the day: Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr., Lane Thomas, Mauricio Dub\u00f3n, Austin Riley, Ha-Seong Kim, and the switch-hitting Ozzie Albies, who exclusively batted right-handed.<\/p>\n

In typical Luzardo fashion, the southpaw relied on his sweeper as his primary pitch. He used it 34% of the time against right-handers, revving it up to 44% against the three left-handers (Drake Baldwin, Matt Olson, Michael Harris II). His sweeper was primarily located on the inner half of the plate for right-handers. One such pitch went just a tad too far inside against Riley, resulting in his hit-by-pitch in the top of the third.<\/p>\n

The meaningful difference was how Luzardo built around the sweeper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Against right-handers, Luzardo actually relied on his four-seam fastball more than his sweeper, throwing it 31 times versus his 24 sweepers. His fastball capped out at 98.1 mph on the day, focused primarily up in the zone, better establishing the movement of his sweeper. Luzardo then worked in his changeup exclusively against right-handers, using it 13 times on the afternoon. He only used his final pitch, the sinker, twice against right-handers, as back-to-back first pitches to Kim and Riley in the third.<\/p>\n

His masterful work against right-handers was complemented by his performance against his same-sided hitters. The Braves\u2019 two base hits on the day, both singles, were from the left-handed Olson and Harris. Olson\u2019s single came with two outs in the fourth, with Luzardo rebounding to strikeout Thomas on three pitches. Harris was also erased in three pitches as his lead-off single to start the eighth was nullified by a 4-3 double play from Dub\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

While Luzardo heavily used his four-seam fastball against right-handers, he opted for his sinker against left-handers, pitching as many sinkers (17) as sweepers. Luzardo only worked in his four-seam five times against lefties, keeping it primarily to a two-pitch approach.<\/p>\n

Another fantastic outing<\/p>\n

A complete game shutout might be the crown jewel outing for Luzardo on the season, but it is a singular drop in a bucket that has been an amazing stretch for the left-hander. Since May 14, Luzardo owns a 1.93 ERA, having struck out 164 batters and allowing only 39 walks in 135.0 IP. Among qualified pitchers, his ERA ranks first on the stretch.<\/p>\n

His success has given the Phillies a chance for sustained success in his starts as the team has gone 18-3. While the team has suffered from issues surrounding a weak and overused bullpen and a hot-or-cold offense<\/a>, neither issue has affected Luzardo\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

Luzardo\u2019s 12 strikeouts marked the sixth time this season he reached double-digits in a game. With 221 strikeouts on the season, he has now set a personal single-season best.<\/p>\n

More impressive than the 12 strikeouts was Luzardo\u2019s ability to keep his stuff in unfamiliar territory. Greeted by a serenade of applause from the Philadelphia faithful, he trotted out to pitch the ninth inning for the first time in his career with 92 pitches, a one-run lead, and the top of the Braves\u2019 order due up.<\/p>\n

After Acu\u00f1a drew Luzardo\u2019s only walk of the day, the tying run stood at first base with one out. Luzardo responded against Baldwin by going back to the approach he had used against Atlanta\u2019s left-handed hitters all afternoon. He threw three straight sweepers before following with three consecutive sinkers. Falling behind 3-1, Luzardo worked his way back with a pair of called strikes, finishing Baldwin with a 96.4 mph sinker at the top of the zone.<\/p>\n

Luzardo then went back to his right-handed approach against Albies, getting him to lift a first-pitch changeup into left field for the final out.<\/p>\n

Three batters and three different sequences provided one final look at how complete Luzardo\u2019s arsenal has become. On a day when the Phillies could not afford another bullpen misstep, their hottest starter ensured they never had to turn to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jes\u00fas Luzardo took Labor Day to heart, giving his entire bullpen a day off in the Phillies\u2019 1-0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[46,5,6,43800,4,144,25,4216,40],"class_list":["post-799390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-phillies","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-baseball","tag-jesus-luzardo","tag-labor-day","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-philadelphiaphillies","tag-phillies"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117233084263762357","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799390","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=799390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}