Phillies’ Jesús Luzardo shuts down the Rockies and helps save the bullpen: ‘He’s a grinder’
Luzardo allowed one earned run, two hits, and finished with 10 strikeouts over six innings. He's now 5-0 with a 1.95 ERA in 10 starts.
DENVER — When Jesús Luzardo walked off the mound after the fifth inning Tuesday, he told Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham that he wanted to go back out.
Luzardo’s pitch count against Colorado was up to 94, and he’d turned in a solid start already, having fanned eight Rockies and allowing just one earned run. Luzardo, who is close to matching the 66⅔ innings he tossed in his injury-shortened 2024 season, surpassed 100 pitches in only two previous starts this year.
But the left-hander wanted to save the bullpen by pitching the sixth. And when Phillies manager Rob Thomson rolled him back out, he needed just 11 pitches to retire the side. Luzardo recorded his ninth and 10th strikeouts in what was ultimately a 7-4 Phillies win.
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“Obviously giving length and trying to save the bullpen as much as possible and eat up innings, I think it’s big for us as a starting rotation,” Luzardo said. “And I just wanted to go out and do that.”
Luzardo improved to 5-0 and lowered his season ERA to 1.95.
“There’s quite a few [relievers] we had tonight that if we had to use, they wouldn’t be available [Wednesday],” Thomson said. “He’s a grinder, man. He’s a gamer. I love him. He’s not going to give in. He’s going to fight.”
The Phillies, winners of five straight, handed the Rockies their 40th loss of the season.
Luzardo had plenty of run support before he took the mound. A four-hit first inning — including a leadoff single from Bryson Stott and a pair of doubles from Trea Turner and Bryce Harper — gave the Phillies an early 3-0 lead. A double from Max Kepler scored another run in the fifth inning.
In the seventh, Kyle Schwarber clubbed a homer 430 feet to straightaway center, a day after crushing a 466-foot homer to reach the 300 milestone. Schwarber’s 301st career homer came off left-handed Rockies reliever Ryan Rolison.
The Phillies, who finished with 17 hits for the second consecutive game, kept the line moving with three singles that scored two more runs in the seventh inning. Brandon Marsh finished 3-for-5 with an RBI.
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“Any man getting up there, we’re trying to do our job,” Harper said. “Get the hits. There’s a lot of hits in this ballpark. Our team, it’s a lot of fun when we’re all hitting on the same cylinder, and I think we’re doing that right now.”
Coors Field is known as a hitter-friendly park due to the higher elevation, but the Rockies couldn’t make much hard contact on Luzardo. They only managed two hits off him, one of which was a bloop only 82 mph off the bat.
He was also helped out by Alec Bohm and Stott, as each made leaping catches to snag line drives.
Colorado grinded out at-bats in the middle innings to drive up Luzardo’s pitch count, and worked three walks. One walk came back to bite Luzardo in the fourth inning when Brenton Doyle stole second and then came around to score on a Tyler Freeman single to left field. Freeman also stole second, beating out J.T. Realmuto’s throw, but Luzardo left him there after striking out Adael Amador.
The Phillies left-hander retired the last seven Rockies he faced. He relied on his four-seam fastball against the fully right-handed Rockies lineup, turning to it 54% of the time. Luzardo only threw one sinker.
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“Finding certain ways to maneuver innings and knowing that you’re not going to get — I don’t want to call it a break — but knowing that you’re not going to get a lefty in there, makes it a little tougher," Luzardo said. “Everyone knows their record, but they’re still big-league hitters, and they got a good lineup over there, so J.T. does a great job of keeping them back and forth and keeping them guessing.”
The Rockies scored one run on three hits against José Ruiz in the seventh. An outfield assist from Marsh — who made a throw to Bohm in time to catch Amador diving into third — helped limit the damage.
Max Lazar, who was recalled from triple-A Lehigh Valley on Monday to join the bullpen, pitched a 1-2-3 eighth. He returned for the ninth and allowed three runs on a double and two hard-hit singles, but induced a flyout to end the game.
Thanks to Luzardo, though, the Phillies used two relievers.
“He did a great job,” Thomson said. “Nothing has showed me that he’s slowed down.”