PHILADELPHIA – In his short time with the Philadelphia Phillies, Jesús Luzardo has had some odd outings.
When he is on, he looks almost unhittable - like a man worthy of Cy Young votes. When he is not, it can get ugly - fast.
Wednesday night might take the cake for the oddest start yet for the left-hander.
There was a combination of near-flawless innings intertwined with two and a third explosive frames. His advanced metrics coming into Wednesday’s outing told a story of a player getting unlucky, but results don’t care about luck. The Phillies staff needs to get to the bottom of what is plaguing their recently extended starter.
In three of his first four innings pitched, Luzardo was able to accomplish something he has not done often. The first, second, and fourth saw Luzardo dominate a Cubs lineup that would eventually score 11 runs—nine of which were charged to his ledger. He threw 10 pitches or less in each of those frames, facing just one over the minimum in that time.
The last time he did so that early in an outing? You have to go all the way back to April 20, 2021, when he was a member of the Athletics and did so in the first four innings. He has had three or more innings with pitch counts that low in a few outings in his career, but none of them were paired with a 34-pitch inning like Luzardo recorded in the third.
The other 2 ⅓ innings he was on the mound and baserunners got on the hard way - or hard-hit way - were what plagued him. The last time Luzardo had an outing like this, it was part of a two-start stretch where he allowed 20 runs in 5 ⅔ innings in late May/early June of 2025. The Phillies staff determined at that time he was tipping his pitches.
According to manager Rob Thomson, they dove in and haven’t found any tips from Luzardo. Reporters asked the pitcher himself after last night’s contest, and he was more adamant that he is not tipping pitches. Regardless, his struggles this season are mimicking what was a major problem during the aforementioned two-start implosion a season ago - his struggles pitching from the stretch.
Last year, Luzardo limited hitters to a .572 OPS with a 30.8% strikeout rate to just a 5.9% walk rate with no one on base. Those numbers jumped to a .801 OPS, 24.6% K rate, and 10.2% BB rate with men on. He allowed the same number of home runs (8) in both scenarios despite throwing the equivalent of nearly 48 more innings with no one occupying the basepaths.
This season, that trend has continued. Chicago had the same number of hits against Luzardo with no one aboard (6-for-18) as he did with runners on (6-for-8). Through his four starts, the gap in OPS is even greater. He has allowed a .529 OPS with bases empty vs. an alarming 1.237 OPS with runners on.
Luzardo and the Phillies staff are aware of the struggles from the stretch and are trying to work on a resolution. “All my throws in between starts are out of the stretch,” he told reporters postgame. “We continue to work at that. Obviously, that’s something that is kind of biting me, so it’s something that we’ve got to fix ASAP. It's not tipping, so it’s got to be something else.”
Whether it’s pitch sequence, pitch shape, arm slot or something else mechanical - the Phillies’ pitching coaches are determined to find a resolution. Luzardo himself is eager to dive deeper into what could be the problem. Regardless, after signing a contract extension worth $135 million in the off-season, this is not what anyone could have imagined his season would look like to start.
While it likely would not have mattered last night after the game Luzardo had, the Phillies' offense continues to struggle. They only had two innings with more than one base runner—the first and the last. Solo home runs from Trea Turner and Bryce Harper were all the offense could muster.
Shota Imanaga, a left-handed starter, was maybe the best he's been. The Cubs starter set a new career high with 12 strikeouts—his splitter claiming most of his victims. He got 26 swing-and-misses, the most for an opposing pitcher against the Phillies since Jacob deGrom generated 35 of them back in September of 2020.
I asked Thomson what the conversations are like on the bench in a game like that where the offense continues to sputter in the early going. “They keep talking to each other about shapes of pitches,” the manager explained. “What is he doing to one guy and if it’s similar to another guy. They’re fighting and they’re working at it, we just haven’t seen results yet.”
Bryce Harper told reporters it’s early, but “I don’t like that notion because I like to win games in April as much as I like to win games in September.”
The saying goes that you can’t win the division in April, but you can lose it. If Harper and the Phillies want an opportunity to win games in October, they need to figure out whatever is ailing their offense sooner rather than later.
