Jesús Luzardo delivers strong start in return from injury

MIAMI, FL—The last time Jesús Luzardo stepped foot on a Major League mound was April 20 against the Chicago Cubs where he completed six innings. Luzardo then went on the 15-day IL due to left elbow tightness and made one rehab start before rejoining the team on Saturday. The Venezuelan went 5 ⅔ innings and struck out eight. Despite the strong performance, it wasn't enough as the Miami Marlins fell to the Philadelphia Phillies by the final score of 8-3.

"He did enough for us to win," said Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, citing how Luzardo threw 72% of his pitches for strikes. "I thought he was as good as I've seen him all year."

Schumaker added that Luzardo's approach against the Phillies was similar to Trevor Rogers' on Friday, except he had better execution. "Similar to what Rogers was trying to do yesterday, throwing the fastball in to open up the changeup and then throwing the slider off of it. Zeus was successful at that. When hitters think inside or have to think a little bit, it opens up everything else. His velocity was there, his command was there, first-pitch strikes a lot."

Swing-and-miss was the name of the game for Luzardo on Saturday afternoon, striking out eight (all of them swinging) and throwing 57 strikes against 22 balls against the potent Phillies lineup. The Marlins starter kicked off his afternoon striking out Bryce Harper and he wouldn't look back from there. Great placements of his slider and changeup were the key to generating 18 whiffs. 

"I know that they're an aggressive team," said Jesús Luzardo following the game. "Top-five offense in baseball, probably. A lot of great hitters one through nine. We know that they're somewhat aggressive and they're looking to jump in early. Just the game plan that I took tonight and thankfully, it worked out for the most part."

Aside from Harper, all of Luzardo's strikeouts came on low-inside pitches to right-handed hitters with great placement of the slider specifically, generating six of his eight strikeouts. Luzardo's eight strikeouts tied a season high, which he set on Opening Day against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Only once had Luzardo completed six innings of work this season. He had a chance to do it a second time, but gave up a double to Whit Merrifield in the top of the sixth and then an RBI double to J.T. Realmuto. After Luzardo recorded his eighth strikeout of the afternoon, Skip Schumaker made the decision to remove him from the game and go with Anthony Maldonado. The Marlins reliever went on to load the bases and give up a bases-clearing, three-run triple to second baseman Bryson Stott, giving the Phillies a commanding 4-1 lead. One of the runs counted towards Luzardo and the other two—who reached on Maldonado walks—were charged to him.

Luzardo was scheduled to face Alec Bohm right before being taken out. Entering Saturday's game, Bohm had gone 1-for-11 with four strikeouts. Through two at-bats in Saturday's contest, Bohm struck out the first time, but knocked in a base hit in his second at-bat.

"I'm not going to push him after an elbow injury," said Schumaker about removing Luzardo after 79 pitches. "I was not going to push him at all and I felt good about Maldonado. Maldonado has been great for us all year and just happened to struggle tonight. As tough as it is to take out Luzardo, I felt good about Maldo. Just didn't work out." Maldonado had not given up a run through his first six MLB outings. 

"The big thing was walking the two righties to get to the lefty," said Anthony Maldonado. "That just can't happen. I gotta get those guys. I gotta get the righties...I have to relook at the pitch to Stott to see where I missed on that 2-2, but at the end of the day, it's walking those two righties."

Entering Saturday, Vidal Bruján had been hot at the plate, slashing .341/.396/.500/.896 with four RBIs and only five strikeouts over his previous 14 games dating back to April 26. He broke the scoreless tie with a solo homer to right-center field in the fifth inning off of Taijuan Walker to give Miami an early 1-0 lead. That was Bruján's first home run since October 5, 2022 when he was still a part of the Tampa Bay Rays organization.

In his first season with the Marlins, Brujan is slashing .271/.338/.429/.767 with one home run and six RBIs. He continues to play around the infield every day as a nice switch-hitting option in the lineup.

The Phillies pulled away by adding four more runs against Burch Smith in the eighth inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, Marlins second baseman Otto Lopez hit his second home run of the year to make it 8-3. The ball left the bat at 107.7 mph and went 421 feet into the air.

With the loss, the Marlins fall to 10-31 on the season while the Phillies improve to 28-12.

The Marlins are back at it on Sunday with Braxton Garrett (left shoulder impingement) making his 2024 season debut. First pitch is at 1:40 pm.