Jesus Luzardo won’t take the ball for the Phillies on Saturday after being scratched because of stiffness in his left throwing shoulder, turning what had shaped up as a marquee matchup into a bullpen game for Philadelphia.
Manager Don Mattingly said the club is choosing caution with the left-hander, even though Luzardo believed he could pitch. After a light bullpen session on Friday, Luzardo had trouble “ getting loose ” and was “ still not quite there,” Mattingly told the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Lochlahn March and other reporters.
“ We feel like it’s safer to be careful with him and don’t want this to linger. So it’s one of the things we want to try to take care of and just go from there,” Mattingly said.
The hope is that Luzardo will be ready for his next scheduled start in a few days. Monday’s off-day gives him extra recovery time, and the Phillies then go to Washington for a two-game set with the Nationals before opening a four-game series with the Mets on Thursday.
The timing makes sense considering how much Luzardo has carried this season. He ranks fourth in MLB in innings pitched at 178 2/3 and third in pitches thrown at 2870. His three biggest pitch counts have all come in his last five outings, including 109 pitches in last Monday’s two-hit complete game shutout against the Braves.
With Luzardo such a key piece of the staff and the Phillies still in the thick of the postseason picture, the team is opting not to push him. Saturday matters in the NL East race, but Philadelphia sits five games behind Atlanta, and the Braves have already clinched the season series, leaving the Phillies’ shot at a third straight division title looking slim.
The playoff race is no cleaner on the wild card side. The Phillies and Cubs are tied at 82-66, with Chicago owning the tiebreaker for the top wild card spot. The Padres are 2.5 games back in the third wild card position, and the Diamondbacks are just a half-game behind San Diego.
Luzardo has backed up the workload with elite production in his second year in Philadelphia. He has posted a 2.87 ERA and 5.5 fWAR across his first 178 2/3 frames of 2026, after putting up 5.4 fWAR in 2025. That performance earned him his first All-Star selection, and it also makes the Phillies’ March decision to sign him to a five-year, $135MM extension look like a sharp one.
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