Jesus Luzardo’s Struggles with Runners on Base

Though the series loss in Chicago is not the big Phillies headline for the day — Jhoan Duran takes the cake — there were still headlines to be made from the end of their road trip.

While there wasn’t a lack of offense, there wasn’t a surplus of offense that’s expected against the White Sox. The boys tallied four runs on Monday, which wasn’t enough for Cristopher Sanchez to hold on. Tuesday was a solid showing from the offense, and Jesus Luzardo managed to hang onto the lead, this time. As for Wednesday’s game? Hopefully, it was turned off once the news broke about Duran.

Sanchez turned in what seems to be the worst start of his season, which would be 6.2 innings pitched and 4 runs allowed, which is the most runs given up since April 6th against the Dodgers. With that start, and Wheeler’s recent blowup, who better than Luzardo to breathe life back into a rotation that — until recently — had been thriving?

Luzardo, who has been all over the place this year, decided to take a step back in the right direction. His final line from Tuesday was 7 innings, 4 strikeouts, and 0 runs. His most recent start like that was July 9th, against the Giants, when he went 7 innings of shutout baseball as well. However, Luzardo allowed 10 earned runs in the two starts between July 9th and Wednesday.

So what is really going on with Luzardo?

It’s actually quite obvious if you watch the game: he can’t pitch from the stretch. Recently, Luzardo figured out he can pitch from the wind-up with runners on — but he has to load the bases first.

Let’s roll the numbers out:

Bases Empty: 65% strike rate, 1.98 FIP, .243 batting average against, 3 HR, 21 BB, 11.57 K/9 Men on Base: 62% strike rate, 4.33 FIP, .284 batting average against, 7 HR, 23 BB, 8.82 K/9

The difference in numbers is quite impressive. When was the last time you saw a pitcher be so night and day with runners on? Well, the answer is actually Aaron Nola. For at least the last two years of his career, Nola has had similar problems with runners on base. If you recall, there was a fix to this issue right before the 2023 playoffs. Nola just had to look at the pitch clock on the left side of the backstop.

In his six starts after his fix, Nola had a 2.27 ERA. He posted a 4.62 ERA in his prior 30 starts that season.

As for Luzardo, it’s been made clear that teams are picking up on his glove position in the stretch, which tips his upcoming pitch. While it might not be the whole issue, it’s a major one. We’ve all seen what happens when hitters know what pitch is coming.

The fix for Luzardo may not be as simple as looking the other way, but the good news is that there may be a simple fix to his problem, as highlighted by Nola.

There is plenty of season left for the Phillies’ offseason acquisition to find his fix, and luckily for the Phillies, Sanchez and Suarez can hold down the left side of the rotation until then.

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