Five takeaways from Jesús Luzardo's dominant rebound in Colorado originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
DENVER — In his first start of the season last Sunday, Jesús Luzardo’s outing was hard to evaluate.
On the surface, it looked like he got hit around for six full innings. He allowed six earned runs over six innings. Dig a little deeper, though, and there were positives.
The first two frames were dominant. He gutted through six innings. He generated swings and misses. But when he took the mound Saturday against the Rockies, there was a lot more to like as the left-hander bounced back in the Phillies’ 2-1 win.
His final line? A dominant six and two-thirds innings, five hits, one earned run, no walks and 11 strikeouts under the lights at Coors Field.
Here’s what stood out.
LIMIT THE DAMAGE
Any time you pitch in Colorado, keeping the ball in the yard is easier said than done.
In his last outing, Luzardo got burned on two mistakes. He allowed a two-run homer to Brandon Nimmo and then a three-run shot to Andrew McCutchen. No matter how good parts of the outing looked, it’s hard to win when you give up the long ball.
Saturday, the Rockies rolled out an almost all-right-handed lineup. Luzardo didn’t flinch.
Keeping the ball in the yard was one of the biggest reasons he was so effective last year, when he allowed the fifth-fewest homers among left-handed starters with at least 30 starts.
After his last outing, in which he allowed six hard-hit balls out of 17 in play and an average exit velocity of 89.6 mph, Luzardo limited just about all loud contact. Of the 13 balls the Rockies put in play, only two were hard-hit (95-plus mph exit velocity), and both were outs.
Their average exit velocity against him was just 79.5 mph.
That was the biggest difference for Luzardo too.
“I felt good, just like last time,” he said. “I did a better job of limiting hard contact, keeping the ball in the field.”
LOTS OF SPIN?
That’s what made this outing even more interesting.
At Coors Field, with the altitude, pitch shape can flatten out in a hurry. Luzardo still found a way to make the ball move a great deal.
“They talk about how the stuff goes down here because of the altitude,” Thomson said. “It didn’t look like it to me. It’s as good as stuff as you’re gonna see.”
His sweeper averaged a whopping 2,389 rpm. That was up 126 spins from his last outing. The pitch also averaged 86.8 mph, more than a mile per hour harder than it came out in his first start. That jump helps explain why Rockies hitters looked off-balance all night.
His four-seam fastball saw a similar uptick, checking in at 2,282 rpm, also above where it sat in his last outing. Against the Rangers, Luzardo struggled to generate swing-and-miss with the fastball. On Saturday, he nearly doubled last season’s whiff rate on the pitch. It also played up to 98.2 mph.
The whole mix was sharper. More life and more chase. Colorado never looked comfortable against it.
EARLY AND OFTEN
When you’re missing bats the way Luzardo was on Saturday, getting ahead early can turn a good start into a dominant one.
That’s exactly what happened.
He started 64 percent of hitters with a first-pitch strike. On its own, that’s not a crazy number. His season average in 2025 was 67.4 percent. But compared to his first outing this year, it was a massive jump.
Last Sunday against Texas, that number sat at 44 percent.
That difference played a huge factor. It led directly into his 73 percent strike rate Saturday and helped him stay in control of at-bats all night. Luzardo was not pitching from behind nearly as often, and the Rockies never got many free looks at fastball counts.
Most importantly, Luzardo did not allow a single free pass.
He noticed the difference immediately.
“I got ahead a little bit better,” Luzardo said, “and put guys away later on.”
SLIDER NOT REINTRODUCED
Oddly enough, a number of Luzardo’s sweepers were read as sliders because of the lesser horizontal movement.
It’s not a pitch you saw at all from Luzardo last year, especially after he introduced the sweeper in his first season with the Phillies while working with pitching coach Caleb Cotham.
Of the nine sweepers that did appear as sliders, Rockies hitters offered at the pitch five times and whiffed on four of them. His overall whiff rate was already up in his first start, but Saturday’s outing pushed it to 40 percent. Last year, his overall whiff rate was 30.8 percent.
Luzardo made clear afterward that nothing new was actually added. It was still the sweeper.
“The sweeper, I know, picked up a lot of sliders, but it was all sweeper,” he said. “It is what it is.”
What stood out more to him was the changeup, which he felt had already started trending in the right direction in spring.
“The changeup, we knew, would be a weapon in spring,” Luzardo said. “Maybe not this much of a weapon, but it has been feeling really good. So I’m happy to have it in my back pocket as well.”
THE DEFENSE
To begin the season, the Phillies’ defense behind their pitchers has been shaky. They came into Saturday tied for the second-lowest mark in defensive runs saved at minus-7.
On this night, though, they flashed the leather.
In the first inning, it started with J.T. Realmuto’s arm. The veteran catcher threw out Ezequiel Tovar trying to steal second to end the frame.
In the bottom of the sixth, Trea Turner made a gorgeous sliding play behind second base, spun and threw out the speedy Tyler Freeman. It was one of those Turner plays that looks smoother than it should.
Luzardo also got help from Bryson Stott, Justin Crawford and Adolis García, who came charging in to record the final out of his dominant night.
There was certainly more to like on Saturday, and Luzardo looked much more like the version of him the Phillies expect.
