“ … Hold up, wait a minute, y’all thought I was finished?”
The line from Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares” felt even more apt the second time it boomed through Citizens Bank Park on Monday, as Jesús Luzardo warmed for the ninth inning for the first time in his career.
Earlier this season, he changed his walk-out song to the Philadelphia rapper’s signature track, a nod to the city that Luzardo officially adopted after signing a five-year extension in March. As the Phillies lefty walked back out to the mound for the ninth and final time against the Braves, the second verse played again. Most of the 41,820 in attendance were on their feet.
In reality, though, there had been no question, not in Luzardo’s mind, nor in interim manager Don Mattingly’s, that he would pitch the ninth. Even before Kyle Schwarber finally broke the scoreless tie with an eighth-inning homer to the second deck, it was always going to be Luzardo’s inning with the way he had been throwing.
“I felt like it was his game,” Mattingly said.
Watching Schwarber’s swing put him in position for the win, Luzardo had just one thought: Go get a shutdown inning.
And while he issued his first walk of the game to Ronald Acuña Jr. — before that, Luzardo only had two three-ball counts all day — Luzardo fought back to strike out Drake Baldwin looking on a sinker. A fly out sealed the 1-0 win over Atlanta, the series split, and Luzardo’s first career shutout.
“Unbelievable game by him,” Schwarber said. “‘Efficient’ is a great word. But he keeps finding a way to keep getting better and better, which is awesome.”
Bullpen collapses contributed to the Phillies’ two losses against the Braves this series, and had put the rickety bridge from their starters to closer Jhoan Duran under a microscope. But although Luzardo had never taken the ball in the ninth before in his professional career, he made that a moot point on Monday.
He limited Atlanta to just two hits. Despite racking up 12 strikeouts and 23 total swings-and-misses, Luzardo was extremely efficient, with 92 pitches through eight and 109 overall. His trademark sweeper was as effective as ever. In the second inning, Michael Harris II was fooled so badly that he chased a sweeper ultimately caught by J.T. Realmuto in the opposite batter’s box.
“We took advantage of an offense that’s very aggressive. They’re very good, and I think that’s what makes them good, is how aggressive they are,” Luzardo said.
Luzardo’s excellence gave his offense chance after chance to break through. But it took them until the eighth inning to take advantage. They left the bases loaded in the first inning, a missed opportunity that started to loom larger as Braves starter Grant Holmes began mowing through the lineup.
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Holmes retired 10 consecutive Phillies hitters, striking out the side in the third inning on three different pitches.
After Schwarber’s leadoff single to start the game, Holmes didn’t allow another hit until Brandon Marsh’s single in the fifth. The Phillies couldn’t advance him, and they also failed to cash in on Trea Turner’s double in the sixth.
Even so, Mattingly liked the Phillies’ at-bats.
“There was a lot of balls like ‘em when I marked my sheet: good at-bats, balls hit hard. There was a ton of them in there. We didn’t get a lot for it,” Mattingly said. “But still, I thought the at-bats were good. The approach was good. Their guy kind of dialed it in. I think after the first, he has the breaking ball going.”
But they finally got just enough in the eighth. With two outs in the inning, Atlanta manager Walt Weiss had a left-hander up in the Braves bullpen, but opted to leave righty Didier Fuentes in to face Schwarber. Fuentes had been carving up the Phillies since relieving Holmes in the seventh, but he made one mistake against the wrong hitter.
Schwarber powered a middle-middle fastball 415 feet to right field to break the stalemate.
“You’re trying to find a way on base,” said Schwarber, who hit three homers against Atlanta this series. “It’s not thinking slug. It’s not thinking anything like that. It’s just trying to find a way on, and obviously [he has] a really good heater and good other pitches, but leaves one [in the] middle and it’s just able to get the barrel there to it, and it takes off.”
It ensured that Luzardo’s spectacular outing didn’t go to waste. The lefty has completely rewritten the narrative of his season after a rocky start. A 1.31 ERA in August won Luzardo pitcher of the month honors, and he has already started out September even better.
“I think everyone dreams about being a guy that your team relies on,” Luzardo said.
When he walked back out for the ninth, Luzardo tried not to think about the potential shutout awaiting him after the third out. He instead tried to calm his adrenaline, and then focus on the game plan.
Luzardo wants to take a few mementos from the best performance of his career so far. But he won’t keep them for himself. He plans to save the game ball and give it to his parents, along with maybe the jersey he wore or the lineup card.
“I think I’m just a piece,” Luzardo said. “As a team, we win as a team. We lose as a team. So I think I wanted to go out and do my part, do my job, and help out any way possible to get the win.”
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