What we learned as Jesús Luzardo's road mastery conquers old tipping site originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
370 days ago, Jesús Luzardo was in the toughest stretch of his professional career.
There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to Luzardo’s struggles last year until the Phils headed to Toronto.
The first-year Phillie was coming off a home start on the final day of May against the Brewers. He surrendered 12 runs in 3 1/3 innings to Milwaukee, the most runs allowed by a Phillies starter since 1947.
At Rogers Centre on June 5, Luzardo was not any better.
Eight runs on nine hits in 2 1/3 innings.
That capped off 20 earned runs in two starts.
He was tipping, they later found out. It was something Luzardo, pitching coach Caleb Cotham and the rest of the pitching coaches worked tirelessly to fix.
By the end of the season, his ERA was 3.92. Without those outings? 3.03. One of the best seasons by a left-hander in the sport in 2025, and he earned a contract extension in March to go with it.
On Wednesday, he returned to Toronto and looked like a completely different southpaw from the one who pitched there a year earlier.
The Phillies’ lefty delivered 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts, pairing well with the club’s offensive success against future Hall of Famer and Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer in a 7-4 win.
Luzardo’s start was symbolic in other ways, too. He outmatched Scherzer, a fellow Floridian whom he works out with in the offseason. It also further proved to Phillies fans what the top of the rotation, with Cristopher Sánchez and Zack Wheeler, is capable of producing against a tough lineup in a rowdy road environment.
To begin the week, the Phillies’ big three combined for a 1.93 ERA over 18 2/3 innings.
THE INSANE SPLIT
It also continued one of Luzardo’s stranger splits of the season.
He has been one of the best starters in baseball away from home. At Citizens Bank Park, it has looked completely different. A roller coaster.
Luzardo now has a 1.55 ERA in seven road starts. At home? The southpaw has a 7.34 ERA.
That 5.79-run gap between his home and road ERAs leads all pitchers in 2026, with Logan Gilbert next at 4.56. It would also be the third-largest gap by a left-hander since those splits began being tracked in 1976, minimum 10 total starts.
The biggest difference has been where he has lived in the zone.
At home, Luzardo has allowed seven home runs and 43 hits in 38 innings. On the road, he has allowed 37 hits in 40 2/3 innings and just one homer.
It will be important for Luzardo to right the ship at home. But nights like Wednesday show why his upside remains so intriguing.
PHILS GO BOOM — PLUS AN INJURY
The Phillies’ offense went berserk to back up its starter.
For the second time in the series, they knocked out a Blue Jays starter in the fourth inning. Patrick Corbin and Scherzer sandwiched a dominant Dylan Cease outing Tuesday night.
On Tuesday, the Phillies swung and missed 29 times against Cease. Scherzer, who notched his 3,500th career strikeout Wednesday, still generated 13 swings and misses.
But the Phillies worked his pitch count to 82 in 3 1/3 innings.
Scherzer likes to live in the zone, and that pushed the Phillies to be more aggressive. It worked in their favor.
In the first inning, Bryce Harper hit his fifth career homer off his former teammate. The Phillies’ first baseman let a fastball travel and drove it out to left field.
An opposite-field homer in a season where Harper entered Wednesday going the opposite way at the lowest rate of his career, 22.4 percent.
They stayed aggressive.
In the top of the third, more former Scherzer teammates got things started. Kyle Schwarber jumped on the first pitch for a single. Trea Turner followed with another single.
Scherzer responded with two outs.
Then Alec Bohm got ahead 1-0. Scherzer came back with a slider, but left it in the middle of the zone. Bohm did not miss the mistake, driving it deep into the left-field seats for a three-run homer.
A lot of Bohm’s recent power success has come to his pull side. For a hitter known for his swing to right-center, it is encouraging to see him find that kind of damage to left field, similar to the pull-side success he showed in spring training.
After knocking out the Cooperstown-bound right-hander, Schwarber tagged Blue Jays lefty Mason Fluharty for a long two-run homer that gave the Phils a 6-0 lead.
In games where the Phillies have gotten homers from Schwarber and Harper, they are now 25-8 all-time.
Adolis García, in the Blue Jays’ three-run seventh inning, left the game with a pulled muscle in the area of his right shoulder, attempting to throw out a runner trying to score on a sac-fly. They would take him out of the game immediately.
Philadelphia does not have a great deal of right-field options. Still, it has the flexibility to move Brandon Marsh to right field — which could open the opportunity for Otto Kemp, Felix Reyes, or even Bryan De La Cruz, all at Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
TIP THE CAP, DON
Philadelphia picked up its 10th series win under interim manager Don Mattingly out of the 13 series it has played. He became the first Phillies manager to win that many series in that span to begin his tenure in franchise history.
His 28-12 record also ties Steve O’Neill in 1952 for the best first 40-game stretch by a Phillies skipper.
The club has played like a different group since the managerial change.
They will face another tough road test this weekend in Milwaukee. The Brewers have continued their success from the last two seasons and lead the NL Central with 41 wins.
The Phils will face NL Cy Young hopeful and flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski (7-2, 1.50) on Friday at American Family Field. They can improve Sánchez’s case (8-2, 1.54) and even Wheeler’s (5-1, 2.22) with a big day against the other pitcher in the race.
