CHICAGO — Jesús Luzardo found a simple solution to his pitching problems out of the stretch:
Don’t let anybody reach base.
Luzardo pitched seven scoreless innings in Tuesday night’s 6-3 victory over the White Sox at Rate Field, putting the Phils in position to win a third consecutive series on Wednesday. He allowed two hits and one walk and committed an error. He struck out four. It was the second time in his past six starts that he pitched more than five innings.
“Going through a rough patch in terms of starts,” Luzardo said. “It just kind of reassures me that … I mean, I didn’t have my best stuff at all and I was still able to go out there and do that. It just reassures the confidence and the understanding that I can still do it, and I still have it in me.
“It’s more limiting that — a blowup, the walks, little things like that. But today was obviously a step in the right direction.”
Luzardo had a 2.15 ERA in his first 11 starts of the season, but he recorded an 8.04 ERA in his next 10. His issues have come with runners on base. He entered Tuesday with a .656 OPS with nobody on base vs. an .834 OPS with runners on base.
The 178-point gap was the seventh-largest negative-OPS gap among qualifiers.
That gap widened significantly in his recent 10-start stretch. From May 31 through last Wednesday, Luzardo had a .598 OPS with nobody on base vs. a 1.263 OPS with runners on base.
That’s a 665-point gap.
So, following a minor mechanical adjustment after last Wednesday’s start against Boston, every throw Luzardo made before he threw his first pitch in the first inning on Tuesday was out of the stretch.
Every pitch in his bullpen session.
Every throw from flat ground.
“Just to make sure I had a 100 percent good feeling,” he said.
Luzardo got tested immediately. He loaded the bases in the first following a leadoff error, a one-out single and a two-out walk. Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham made a rare first-inning mound visit.
He reminded Luzardo that he was one good pitch from ending the inning.
Luzardo pitched out of the windup to Colson Montgomery, who flew out to center field to end the inning.
Luzardo did not pitch out of the windup with the bases loaded against Boston last week, when he allowed a double, four walks and a grand slam in a nightmarish fifth-inning collapse at Citizens Bank Park.
Luzardo said then that he pitched out of the stretch because he trusted that he could.
“Just kind of kicking myself last week,” he said. “I could’ve gone into the windup, and I wanted to and I second-guessed it. It didn’t work out. I just felt more comfortable out of the windup.”
Luzardo is trying to find his groove again. The Phillies (61-46) need him to pitch well in the regular season to win the NL East. But they also need him to pitch well because they will need at least one starter to move to the bullpen in the postseason, if they make it.
Luzardo is the ideal candidate because of his stuff.
Tuesday’s performance should not only give him confidence, but maybe even shape the Phillies’ front office’s view of the future bullpen before Thursday’s 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline. Their entire baseball operations department is in Chicago.
The Phils are looking for a closer, but they also need a bat.
There are outfielders available like Luis Robert Jr., Ramón Laureano and Steven Kwan.
A deal like that could affect the short-term and long-term futures of outfielders like Max Kepler and Brandon Marsh, who doubled in the second and hit a two-run homer in the third. It was Marsh’s first game with two extra-base hits since last September.
“You always bet on yourself, but I’m not worried about that,” Marsh said about the Deadline. “If something happens, something happens. We’ll keep going. What matters is tomorrow, winning the series here in Chicago. Yeah, it is in the back of everyone’s mind probably, but we try not to think about it. Just focus on the task at hand.”
