Phillies Notebook: Against former team, Jesus Luzardo happy with control

PHILADELPHIA — Jesus Luzardo has had three stellar outings and one rough one as a Phillie.

His fifth outing Sunday was of the excellent variety, even if it didn’t result in a win.

Against his former team, Luzardo worked seven innings, allowing eight hits, two runs (one earned). That the bullpen couldn’t hold on in a 7-5 loss to Miami in 10 innings is frustrating. But Luzardo’s part of it was solid.

He needed just 88 pitches to get 21 outs. He didn’t use more than 14 pitches in any inning until the seventh, which cost him a chance to go deeper. He struck out seven, walked none and went seven innings for the second time in five starts.

“I felt like this one was better in terms of getting in the zone, staying away from the walks and trying to get early contact, which is what I think every starter wants to do,” Luzardo said. “I think we were able to achieve that today.”

He allowed an unearned run in the seventh when Bryce Harper ole-ed a Matt Mervis grounder into a double and Javier Sanoja scored on a Bryson Stott error at second that should’ve ended the inning.

That’s to say nothing of Luzardo deserving a better fate than seeing Orion Kerkering cough up the lead in the eighth by allowing Sanoja to belt a three-run homer for his first in the big leagues and Matt Strahm losing it in the 10th.

Luzardo had walked seven in his first four starts. He allowed three runs in 5.1 innings Tuesday against San Francisco.

Luzardo had a weird moment in the seventh where he spiked a pitch, then on the next delivery went all the way through his motion but didn’t release the ball, saying his cleat got stuck on landing. The 21-pitch seventh meant Rob Thomson didn’t try to extend him.

Luzardo, coming off an injury-effected 2024 with the Marlins, hasn’t thrown more than 98 pitches in an outing.

Luzardo, who lowered his ERA to 2.08, said there was nothing extra coming into the start against his former mates.

“I just went towards it like it’s another game,” he said. “I didn’t want to put too much mind to it. Just another start.”

• • •

Luzardo’s seven innings was a balm to a bullpen taxed heavily Saturday with Taijuan Walker’s early exit. Thomson maintains faith in that unit, even as its struggles continue.

On the concern du jour, Thomson reiterated faith in Jordan Romano despite the righty’s six-run blowup. On whether the Phillies have divined any reason for Romano getting clobbered despite his velocity remaining high, Thomson offered a half-hearted, “maybe.”

“You dig into it and you think you’ve got it, you think you’ve figured something out,” Thomson said. “That might not be it. So we’ve got to find out.”

That was before Kerkering hung a slider to Sanoja and called into question the only reliably righty the Phillies have had.

“It’s just part of the season, and I think that’ll even itself out over time,” Thomson said. “We played so many close games there for a long period of time that we did lean on them. But they’re a pretty resilient group, and I think we’ve taken care of them, too, at the same time.”

Romano’s 15.26 ERA is the biggest blemish, but he’s not alone.

Jose Ruiz has a 6.14 ERA, unable to replicate his progress into a dependable medium-to-high-leverage guy last year. Joe Ross has a 7.45 ERA in 9.2 innings. Carlos Hernandez’s WHIP of 2.29 is higher than Romano’s, though he has 9.00 ERA and is nowhere near an option for anything but low-leverage duty.

The return of Ranger Suarez and shuttling Walker to the ‘pen should help bolster the right side, but there’s a lot of work to do. A 20-game struggle isn’t enough, though, for Thomson to start worrying.

“I don’t, because it’s still a small sample size,” he said. “I know we have really good arms, really good stuff out there. We’ve just got to keep working on it. Keep grinding through it.”

• • •

Brandon Marsh’s right knee pain turned into a hamstring strain that landed him on the injured list Sunday, retroactive to Thursday. Cal Stevenson was promoted I his place.

Thomson hopes the issue is minor, and Marsh will travel on the upcoming road trip. The outfielder’s lack of healing made bringing up a replacement necessary.

“He wasn’t getting worse. He just wasn’t improving, and he can’t run at 100%,” Thomson said. “… Once he can run 100%, we’ll send him out and get him some at-bats.”

The fact that Marsh is hitting .095 (4-for-42) doesn’t make a case to hurry him back. A rehab assignment may serve the dual purpose of the reset that Thomson was looking for in a benching last week.

• • •

In his absence, Johan Rojas will be the everyday center fielder. He entered Sunday batting .345 and added a single against the Marlins. Thomson lifted him for a pinch-hitter in the eighth against a righty. Stevenson tied the game at 5 with a ball hit to second base that should’ve been scored an error.

The sample size is small, but Rojas has been putting more balls in play

“He struck out three times the other night. It’s going to happen,” Thomson said. “But he’s making contact. He’s bunting at the right time. He’s using the entire field. He’s playing good.”

• • •

NOTES >> The Phillies has no more information on Taijuan Walker, whose shoulder stiffened after four solid innings. He’s in line for his normal between-starts bullpen on Tuesday. … Kyle Schwarber extended his on-base streak to 28 games, dating to last year. … The Phillies venture Monday to New York for a rematch of last year’s NLDS against the Mets. The scuffling Aaron Nola (0-4, 6.65 ERA) starts the opener against Tylor Megill (2-2, 1.40).