PHILADELPHIA – The direction from the Phillies front office in the offseason was clear. The lineup and bullpen broke down in the postseason last fall. With few spots open to upgrade either department without departures, Dave Dombrowski and company instead doubled down on a strength by acquiring Je sus Luzardo. A deep pitching staff in which Ranger Suarez figured to be the fourth starter would get even deeper, the logic that fewer innings on the bullpen and less need to score runs would magnify what those two units brought. Through two games, it’s working out beautifully. And as much as Rob Thomson has stridently avoided extrapolating too much from three games against the Dodgers in early April, you couldn’t help but look at what Luzardo did Friday night with a bit of wonder. Luzardo was excellent, scattering two hits and two walks over seven shutout innings, the Phillies handing the Dodgers their first loss of the season, 3-2, at Citizens Bank Park. Luzardo called it, “probably one of my most well-executed starts I’ve ever had in my career.” For his first appearance at Citizens Bank Park as a Phillie against the daunting lineup of the world champions, the performance was enough to let fans gaze, however briefly, toward what October might be. “I’ve seen him pitch pretty well against us, so I know he can pitch well against good lineups,” Thomson said. “But he’s really impressed me ever since his first bullpen in spring training, and it’s been very consistent as far as command, control, velocity, shape of his pitches. So when you see him up close, it’s a little more impressive than when you see him from far away.” Luzardo was, to borrow Thomson’s descriptor, “fantastic”. He got through five innings at 58 pitches, then was at 72 when Thomson sent him out for the seventh against the heart of the Dodgers order. He allowed a single and a walk through the first two turns of the order, then pitched around Teoscar Hernandez’s two-out bloop double and a walk in the seventh by striking out Kike Hernandez. He still had 97 miles per hour in the tank in that plate appearance, Hernandez only able to foul off the heat before flailing at a sharp slider. “Just making the pitches where we needed to make them, moving the ball around,” Luzardo said. “JT (Realmuto) did great job calling the game back there. I didn’t shake him once, just basically trusting him and the homework that he does and the plan that we set together. And we executed it well.” Luzardo touched 98 on his fast ball. He induced four swing-and-misses on each his changeup and slider, the kind of secondary stuff that he hopes can be magnified by the way Realmuto and the coaching staff devise how to deploy it. “He was able to mix his pitches well tonight,” Realmuto said. “He was ahead of guys all night long, throwing a lot of strikes, mixing the sweeper and slider together. Changeup looked great. He had everything going.” Luzardo is off to a flying start. He struck out 11 in five innings in Washington in his debut, then was even better at home. He knows how daunting the environment in Philadelphia can be, on the wrong side of it in the playoffs in 2023 with Miami, and was glad to have the crowd behind him for a change. “It’s great,” he said. “Having a fanbase like that and an atmosphere like that pulling behind you is what every player dreams of, and the adrenaline that it gives you as a player, I think it brings out the best in you.” Luzardo’s potential has long been tantalizing. Over 50 starts in 2022 and 2023 with the Marlins, he posted an ERA under four. He reached 178 innings pitched in 2023, the Marlins making the playoffs. But it came at a cost, and he was far less effective in just 12 starts last season, first with elbow tightness, then with a lumbar stress reaction. But the velocity is back. The secondary stuff is sharp. The burden of the staff, with a pair of established aces and the continued growth of Cristopher Sanchez, is spread among the group. Through two starts – teeny tiny sample that it is – Luzardo is doing his part. ...read more read less