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.
In Other News...
Phillies Suddenly Face A Luzardo Concern They Really Couldn't Afford
The Phillies took a frustrating extra-innings loss to the Braves and watched the gap in the division widen to five games, but the bigger concern might have come after the final out. Don Mattingly said Jess Luzardo was scratched from his scheduled start because of left shoulder stiffness, a troubling development for a rotation that has leaned on him more than any other recent arm.
Luzardo has been the clubs most effective pitcher lately, which makes his status especially important with the standings already tightening in the wrong direction. Any absence now carries real weight for Philadelphia, not just in the division chase but in the larger postseason picture, where the margin for error keeps shrinking by the day. [Read more 🡒]
Phillies Have A Jhoan Duran Problem They Can't Ignore In October
Jhoan Duran has been one of the biggest reasons the Phillies have been able to steady their late innings this season. The All-Star closer has piled up strikeouts and worked his way into the role the club expected when it brought him in, giving Philadelphia a dominant arm to lean on when games tighten up in September and beyond.
But October has a way of exposing every soft spot, and Durans numbers in tie games are hard to overlook. Opposing hitters have done far too much damage in those spots, including a costly homer in a recent game against the Astros, while the bullpen around him has been uneven enough to force the Phillies to think carefully about who gets the biggest outs if the game is still hanging in the balance. [Read more 🡒]
Phillies Suddenly Face A Delicate Aaron Nola Playoff Decision
Aaron Nolas late-season rebound has given the Phillies something they can use, and something they now have to manage carefully. Since August, his outings have generally been sharper, and most of that run has come with Garrett Stubbs behind the plate, a pairing that has quietly become one of the more interesting variables in Philadelphias playoff planning.
Garrett Stubbs has not offered much with the bat, but the Phillies believe his work with Nola has helped unlock better results from the right-hander. That leaves the club weighing a choice it would rather not have to make: keep leaning into the chemistry that has worked, or stick with J.T. Realmuto in October even as his performance and workload have dipped enough to push the team into some experimentation. [Read more 🡒]