Jesús Luzardo is finally feeling like himself again

JUPITER, FL—"I felt like myself again today," said Jesús Luzardo after his outing against the Astros Tuesday in Jupiter. The stat line told a different story but at this point in spring training, none of that matters when push comes to shove. He started things off with a rough first inning in which he allowed a run to score on three hits and a wild pitch. His only blemish in the next two innings was a hard-hit double down the left field line by Mauricio Dubón.

Luzardo came into the fourth inning with four strikeouts and a manageable pitch count. It got out of hand quick as he allowed two runners to reach base on a single, a fielder's choice, and a hit batsman without recording an out. Skip felt it was time to make a change and get Luzardo off the mound so he brought in minor league call-up Lincoln Henzman. Henzman allowed those runners plus a few more to score tacking two earned runs onto Luzardo's line (3.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HB, 1 WP, 67/45 P/S).

Having not reached the planned 75 pitches on the mound, Luzardo threw an additional ten pitches in the bullpen before heading to the clubhouse.

His offspeed pitches generated a combined eight whiffs on 19 swings while his fastball didn't generate a single whiff. He said of his pitches, "[This was] probably the first or second time this spring that I started feeling my offspeed pitches really do what they're supposed to do. Had a really good feel for the slider, thankfully again, so we got that back. The changeup felt good. The fastball was getting to the right spots. So all in all I felt like it was a step in the right direction, especially after the last star which was frustrating." He said that his focus going into his last two spring starts before Opening Day is to improve his pitch efficiency and get back into counts on a consistent basis.

Skip on Luzardo's outing: "I thought he did a lot better than last time. Velo was way up today. I thought the slider was good. I thought the changeup was good. I thought overall it was much closer to where it needs to be with opening day coming up."

JT Chargois gave up a run on two hits in an inning of relief while recording one strikeout in his first appearance of the spring after a delayed start to his progression caused by neck spasms. Concerningly, the velocity and spin rate on both his sinker and slider were down a significant amount.

When asked about Chargois, Skip said, "We'll have to see how he's feeling to make sure everything's okay. The velo was a little bit down so maybe [it is just because it was his] first time out."

Nick Gordon made his first start at second base of the spring and reminded everyone that he can play pretty much anywhere, and he can play it well. Not only did he make an almost-spectacular diving stop and glove flip behind the bag, he also racked up two hits to the opposite field: a leadoff single in the bottom of the first, and a leadoff double in the bottom of the third. 

Skip on Nick Gordon: "It's not surprising to me because he's such a good athlete. I know it can play second base. I know he can play all three outfield positions. He's got a good arm. [His] baseball IQ is as good as there is. As far as the hit tool, other than a couple of lefties that he's faced, he's had a really nice spring at the plate. I think he's going to be extremely valuable for us this year."

Noah's Notes

• Eury Pérez is scheduled to start Wednesday's game against the Washington Nationals and is expected to go 5 innings and between 65 and 70 pitches.
• Other pitchers scheduled to pitch in that game: Sixto Sánchez (2 innings), Roddery Muñoz (3 innings) and Bryan Hoeing (1 inning).