Major League Baseball announced its players of the month this morning, and a familiar face for Phillies fans made the cut. Jesús Luzardo earned NL Pitcher of the Month for August, the first monthly honor of his career.
Luzardo was simply dominant last month. His 1.31 ERA was 14 points lower than the next-closest pitcher overall, and 24 points below the closest number in the National League. He is the second Phillies pitcher (Cristopher Sánchez, May) to win the award in 2026. Luzardo is the 13th player to have an ERA under 1.35 over at least five starts in a calendar month this season - 10th in the National League.
Overall, the Phillies left-hander finished the month with a 3-0 record, tossing 34 1/3 innings with 46 strikeouts to just nine walks over his five outings. His 1.98 FIP was also the lowest in the majors. He was the only player to record a sub-2.00 FIP.
Maybe just as important as those numbers, Luzardo was the only pitcher in the bigs to average seven innings per start in the month. During a time when the Phillies' bullpen seemed to be in flux, his ability to go deep into games consistently has helped limit overexposure of that group. Only eight players have averaged that many innings in a calendar month this season, and only four of those men, including Luzardo and Sánchez, did so across five or more starts.
Most importantly, Philadelphia won every time Luzardo started in August. In fact, they are winners in six straight if you include his start against Arizona on September 1.
The starting staff in Philly is once again the fuel that has the club burning bright. They owned the league's best record in August at 21-7. Over the month, they had the league's fifth-best ERA from their starters at 2.99. That heavily influenced their No. 2 overall ranking in ERA (3.06). Their strikeouts-per-nine was tops in the league (10.65), and their 3.15 K/BB ratio was only bested by two other clubs.
Philly saw more innings from their starters than any other club. They were the closest club to averaging six innings per start over the month, which in turn helped the bullpen settle.
Philadelphia now enters the final month of the season looking as strong as they have all year. Their offense flipped the script on their approach from top to bottom, and a rotation that seemingly had at least two holes every time through has plugged them with authority.
Luzardo's award is the icing on the cake of a stellar month of Phillies baseball. But any Phillies fan will tell you, October matters more. If they continue to play like this, Red October will be a long one.
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