WASHINGTON -- Jesús Luzardo slapped his left hand into his glove and shouted to himself as he left the mound after the fifth inning on Saturday at Nationals Park. He hit his glove a few more times before looking skyward.
He was pumped.
He had just thrown another nasty slider to get another swing-and-miss in the Phillies¡¯ 11-6 victory over the Nationals. But this one would be the final pitch of Luzardo's Phillies debut. It was his 11th strikeout, too.
¡°Just excited to finish off strong,¡± Luzardo said.
Luzardo¡¯s 11 strikeouts tied Hall of Fame right-hander Jim Bunning (April 15, 1964) for the second-most in a team debut in Phillies history.
Garrett Stephenson struck out 12 in his Phils debut on May 13, 1997.
It couldn¡¯t have gone much better for Luzardo -- who allowed two runs in five innings -- or the Phillies, who got homers from Bryson Stott, Kyle Schwarber and Brandon Marsh.
They can sweep the series with a victory on Sunday.
¡°He¡¯s awesome,¡± Stott said about Luzardo. ¡°He fits right in. He¡¯s electric. Obviously, we saw him a lot [when he was with the Marlins]. It¡¯s even more electric when he¡¯s striking out 11 from a different team and not us.¡±
It was just one start, of course, but this was what the Phillies envisioned when they traded prospects Starlyn Caba and Emaarion Boyd to the Marlins for Luzardo in December. After unsuccessfully trying to shake up the lineup, the Phillies doubled down on starting pitching. They believed Luzardo could be a difference maker in an All-Star rotation with Zack Wheeler, Cristopher S¨¢nchez, Aaron Nola and Ranger Su¨¢rez.
It was why the Phillies quietly shrugged off questions throughout the spring about the organization bringing back its core from the 2022-24 rosters (i.e. simply running it back again). People weren¡¯t giving Luzardo enough credit. He missed most of last season because of a back injury, but when he is healthy, he is very good.
¡°He was great," Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. "He threw strikes, he went after people."
Luzardo¡¯s four-seam fastball averaged 96.9 mph, up 1.7 mph from last season. He threw 11 pitches at 97.5 mph or harder on Saturday. He threw only 17 all of last year.
Luzardo made his final start last season on June 16 against the Nats in D.C. His four-seam fastball averaged 92.0 mph that day. He got only four swings and misses, tied for the second fewest in a start in his career (minimum 50 pitches).
He watched that start last week to try to learn something about the hitters he might face on Saturday.
¡°It just wasn¡¯t me, at all,¡± Luzardo said. ¡°I didn¡¯t get much value out of it. Just a completely different pitcher.¡±
And not just because he is healthy. Luzardo struck out five Nationals with his slider, but he also struck out five with his sweeper.
The sliders weren¡¯t a surprise. It¡¯s been Luzardo¡¯s bread and butter for years.
But the sweeper? Well, it¡¯s brand new.
Nobody really knew how much he might throw it against the Nationals. He threw it 21 times. It was his second-most thrown pitch, behind only his four-seamer (31). He threw the sweeper more than his slider (15), changeup (14) and sinker (14).
It wasn¡¯t necessarily the plan.
¡°We go more based off how it¡¯s feeling today,¡± Luzardo said. ¡°It felt really good, so we leaned on it a little bit more. It¡¯s just another way of getting guys out. Different swing types, different profiles for a hitter. It just fits into the game plan a little bit in different ways than I would use my normal slider. Just finding different avenues of getting guys out.¡±
¡°It was good, especially against lefties,¡± Nats manager Dave Martinez said. ¡°They had a tough time picking it up. It was kind of late. But it was a good pitch."
Almost exactly a month ago, Luzardo threw two sweepers in his Phillies¡¯ Grapefruit League debut in Clearwater, Fla.
Those were the first ones he had ever thrown in a game.
¡°It¡¯s still a work in progress,¡± he said at the time, trying to temper expectations. ¡°It¡¯s not a confirmed pitch.¡±
But the more Luzardo threw the pitch this spring, the more he liked it.
He really liked it on Saturday. He liked almost everything.