In one of the wildest games of the season, the Phillies found themselves on the wrong end of a 17-7 drubbing by the Brewers, as pitcher Jesus Luzardo had a day to forget. This outing, his 12th for the Phillies, marked the lowest point in his otherwise impressive career so far.
Luzardo stepped onto the mound with the reputation of being an invincible force against home runs, sporting the lowest home run rate in the National League. Up until yesterday, he hadn’t conceded more than three runs in a start.
In a flash, that changed. Just four batters in, two singles and a walk set the stage for Rhys Hoskins to deliver a mighty three-run blast off a 97 mph fastball, setting the tone for what would be a rough night for Luzardo and company.
The fourth inning was a spectacle Philadelphia fans might want to erase from memory. It started disastrously with centerfielder Brandon Marsh and right fielder Nick Castellanos miscommunicating on a fly ball, which bounced off Castellanos' glove for a double.
That little mix-up set the stage for further chaos, as Luzardo misfired a throw to first after fielding a dribbler from Caleb Durbin, letting another run cross the plate. The floodgates opened with back-to-back walks, more singles, and another three-run homer from Hoskins, matching his career-best of six RBIs in a single game.
By the end of his outing, Luzardo had shockingly given up 12 runs on 12 hits, catapulting his ERA from a stellar 2.15 to a more pedestrian 3.58. To find a Phillies starter yielding so many runs, you'd have to roll the clock back to Al Jurisich in 1947.
This stumble was all the more surprising given that the Phillies had been on fire, winning 11 of their last 12 games before dropping this series to the Brewers. Despite their recent success, they face questions in the wake of their third consecutive loss.
A controversial balk call in the fourth saw manager Rob Thomson ejected after he stormed the field to argue. Luzardo seemed to have successfully picked off Sal Frelick at first.
But, in a surprise twist, third-base umpire Derek Thomas ruled a balk, awarding Frelick second base. Thomson took issue both with the call itself and the fact that it came from an umpire who didn’t have the best view of the play.
That Luzardo would eventually hit a wall might have been inevitable. Up until now, he’s been logging career-high numbers in innings and pitch counts.
The Phillies have been pushing their ace, and the challenge now lies in finding the right balance to keep him fresh for a potential postseason run. Options like pulling him an inning earlier or giving him a rest by occasionally skipping a start—or even transitioning to a six-man rotation when Andrew Painter returns—are all on the table.
Looking to avoid a sweep at home for the first time since July of the previous year against the Yankees, the Phillies will pin their hopes on Ranger Suarez on Sunday. Suarez comes in on a hot streak, having thrown four stellar games in a row, with three of those being scoreless outings lasting at least six innings. Another performance like any of those could be just what the team needs to stabilize after such a tumultuous outing.
