Phillies' offense jumps on Marlins early, Jesus Luzardo shines in 7-2 win

MIAMI – Jesus Luzardo thought his day started off good when he was able to wake up in his own bed Sunday morning.

Then he got to the ballpark and his teammates presented him with six first-inning runs, three on one big swing by Bryson Stott.

From good to great.

That was Luzardo’s day Sunday.

Pitching just down I-95 from his South Florida home, the 28-year-old lefty fired 6 1/3 strong innings to backbone the Phillies’ 7-2 win over the Miami Marlins under the big, white dome in Little Havana.

The Phillies are still just 14-20 on the season.

But they are 5-1 under Don Mattingly, who took over as manager when Rob Thomson was fired on Tuesday.

“As players, guys in this clubhouse, whenever there’s a coaching change, you wear it,” Stott said. “We knew a big part of what happened was us not playing well. You never want to see someone lose their job. It was a little bit of a wakeup call. We weren’t playing to our standards.”

One day after being one-hit by the Marlins, the Phillies’ offense collected 11 hits. Every player in the starting lineup had at least one.

“More than anything, it was a response,” Mattingly said. “One game is over. You catch a guy with good stuff and a good breaking ball one night, you respond.”

The onslaught began early when Trea Turner led off the game with a double against Miami right-hander Chris Paddack. The Phillies ended up sending nine men to the plate in that inning as Paddack, with a fastball sitting at 92 mph, walked three. Stott highlighted things with a three-run home run as the Phils built a 6-0 lead.

Luzardo took care of the bulk of the heavy lifting from there. He pitched shutout ball through six innings before his line was pocked by a hit batsman and a two-run homer with one out in the seventh.

“He was on the attack,” Mattingly said. “Momentum usually comes from your starting pitching, but today it came from our offense. The at-bats were good and Jesus put up zeroes.”

For the day, Luzardo walked none and struck out 10. He featured mostly a four-seam fastball, which topped out at 98.8 mph, a sweeper and a changeup. The latter two pitches resulted in all 16 of his swings and misses.

Luzardo changed the grip on his changeup from a circle to a split grip in spring training and he’s now hitting his stride with the pitch.

“It’s taken a big step this year,” he said.

Luzardo had some control issues in mid-April as he walked eight in a span of three starts and his ERA swelled to 7.94. In two starts since then, he has pitched 13 1/3 walk-free innings and given up just two runs while striking out 18. The Phillies have won both games and his ERA has moved in the right direction to 5.09.

“We’ve worked on a couple of mechanical things,” he said. “I’m getting back to what I felt like last year. I started off a little out of whack mechanically. I’m starting to feel like I’m getting in my groove now to where I was last year. Where I am mechanically right now, I’m able to command all my pitches.”

Mattingly has an interesting perspective on Luzardo. The pitcher arrived in the majors with Oakland in 2019. He was traded to the Marlins in the summer of 2021 when Mattingly managed that club.

“When he first came here from Oakland, the stuff looked like it did now,” Mattingly said. “It was just a matter of getting it in the strike zone like he does now. That’s led to confidence.”

In the first 28 games of the season, the Phillies’ starting staff had just six quality starts. In the five wins under Mattingly, it has registered four of them, two by Luzardo.

“It starts with us,” Luzardo said. “We set the tone. When (the opposition) puts up crooked numbers, it makes it hard on the guys behind us. We want to go out there, go as long as we can and put up zeroes. We take a lot of pride in that.”

And when your teammates give you six runs in the first inning … well, everything tastes a lot better.

Stott, who is beginning to warm after a slow start, has a triple and two homers in the last five games. He is hitting .340 in his last 27 games in Miami.

“(Jose) Alvarado told me it’s the empanadas they serve here,” Stott said with a laugh. “I’ll go with that.”