Jesús Luzardo's chaotic first season with Phillies unravels even further

New York Times

24-07-2025

PHILADELPHIA — Jesús Luzardo crouched on the slope of the mound for six seconds as everything around him unraveled. It took 13 minutes for the Boston Red Sox to score six runs against a pitcher who dominated them for the game's first four innings. But it felt like six seconds.
'That's what gets under my skin the most,' Luzardo said after an exhausting 9-8 Phillies loss in 11 innings. 'Going into the fifth, I didn't give up a hit. You look back, and I only gave up two hits all game. And you give up six runs. It's unacceptable. Four walks just can't happen in the whole game and shouldn't happen in one inning. It happened really fast.'
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It's becoming difficult to explain Luzardo's first season with the Phillies. He was their prized acquisition in an austere offseason. He posted a 2.15 ERA in his first 11 starts. He allowed 20 runs in his next two. He made significant mechanical changes when pitching from the stretch, and it's resulted in only a 4.79 ERA over his last nine starts.
He has occupied extremes from month to month, start to start, and even within games — like Wednesday night. He walked four batters and surrendered a grand slam to Romy Gonzalez. The six-run inning would have been different had J.T. Realmuto seen a foul pop-up behind home plate. But he lost it in the sky. The inning might have been different had manager Rob Thomson removed Luzardo one batter sooner.
But all of that absolves Luzardo from a basic failure. He cannot throw quality strikes with runners on base. It's been a problem for more than a month. It is still a problem. It will cast doubt on where he best fits in the pitching puzzle moving forward.
The entire thing is confusing.
'It's not physical,' Luzardo said. 'My stuff is the best that it's been in my whole career. So it's not a stuff problem. It's more of command, making the right pitch at the right times, executing the pitches. … There's no excuse. It just needs to happen now.'
ROMY WITH THE GO-AHEAD GRAND SLAM. pic.twitter.com/iRdTKSvilj
— Red Sox (@RedSox) July 24, 2025
Luzardo applied changes to how he positioned his hands from the stretch before a June 11 start. He used a bigger glove. The Phillies wondered if teams had seen Luzardo's grip before he came set. The adjustments led to immediate success — six innings of one-run ball against the potent Chicago Cubs — and mixed results otherwise.
Since June 11, opponents have hit .192/.252/.253 with 37 strikeouts and eight walks when there is no one on base against Luzardo. With runners on base, those numbers jump to .339/.443/.576, 16 strikeouts and 11 walks.
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He ditched all of the tweaks Wednesday night. He went back to his original mechanics from the beginning of the season. It didn't matter.
'Clearly, it's not working,' Luzardo said. 'So, working tirelessly to fix it. It's been over a month now. The first 12 starts were incredible in the sense that there was never a problem. And then, now, it's always been an issue. Out of the wind-up clearly isn't the problem. It's when we get in the stretch. I feel like other teams know that. Just back to the drawing board in terms of that.'
Luzardo was the one productive offseason acquisition by Dave Dombrowski and his front office; now, even the hard-throwing lefty has failed them. Jordan Romano is relegated to sixth-inning duties. Joe Ross has a 5.28 ERA and is on the injured list with back spasms after he 'stepped in a hole or something on the mound,' Thomson said. Max Kepler, who took some better swings this week, went 0-for-5 and struck out to end Wednesday's loss. He has a .666 OPS.
It was an offseason of half-measures, and it could prompt Dombrowski to surrender top prospects in the next week to make the proper fortifications. It is not ideal.
Luzardo looks more and more like someone the Phillies will bump to the bullpen later this season. He could help them there. But he must solve the issues from the stretch to become a trusted option again.
His second walk of the fifth inning loaded the bases. He could have gone back to the wind-up at that point but declined. 'There was definitely a thought,' Luzardo said. But he didn't want the runner on second base to have such a huge lead that he'd easily score on a single. He didn't want to risk a steal of home. And there was some pride at stake.
'I have a lot of faith in myself out of the stretch,' Luzardo said. 'I understand that there's been an issue. But I also believe in myself to make a pitch and get out of it. So, I just need to be better and make the pitch.'
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It's possible — probable, even — that Luzardo has overthought this. The Phillies have spent considerable time searching for predictable patterns to his movements, pitch selection … anything.
'I don't know what happened in the fifth,' Thomson said. 'He lost his concentration. Are they picking something up on him? I don't know.'
This was the game within the game between these two teams. The Phillies thought the Red Sox were relaying signs all series. 'They're notorious for it,' one Phillies player said. The Red Sox were suspicious too; they intentionally balked Bryce Harper to third base in the 11th inning so he couldn't steal signs from second base.
There was a conspicuous mound meeting during the top of the 10th with Max Lazar throwing. Lazar delivered a first-pitch curveball that Trevor Story swung through. But pitching coach Caleb Cotham sprang from the dugout and convened catcher J.T. Realmuto. They were worried that someone — either Jarren Duran or Boston first-base coach José David Flores — could see Lazar's grip in his glove. Flores, a former Phillies coach, has become known throughout the league as a sign stealer. Alex Cora, the Red Sox manager, is adept in the dark arts.
Two pitches later, Story doubled home a run.
Teams are investing more energy and resources into identifying pitch tipping and potential tells. It's created a certain paranoia; it is what led Luzardo to make dramatic changes to his delivery from the stretch in early June.
'I'm not really sure if that was ever a problem at this point,' Luzardo said of potential tipping. 'I just think it just needs to get right.'
Luzardo has been saying that for weeks. Everything is happening fast and slow.
'We're still grinding through it,' Thomson said. 'When you think you've got something fixed, it might be something different. You don't know.'