Phillies Ride Great Jesús Luzardo Start And Bryce Harper Home Run For 4-2 Win Over Marlins
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It’s three wins in a row for the Phillies.
After a dominant series-opening win in South Beach, the Philadelphia Phillies secured the series win over the Miami Marlins thanks to a 4-2 win. While the offense wasn’t able to repeat the previous night’s success, they did enough behind a solid start from Jesús Luzardo to secure the win.
Luzardo finished the afternoon going six innings, striking out eight batters, and allowed just two runs on five hits. For the Phillies offense, Bryce Harper smacked his 24th home run of the season, while Brandon Marsh and Edmundo Sosa both recorded two hits.
On the mound for the Marlins was former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcántara, making his 22nd career start against the Phillies. While Alcántara has had success against the Phillies in the past, the first inning was not one of those times. Kyle Schwarber led off the game, getting hit by a pitch, and after a lineout from Alec Bohm, Bryce Harper stepped up to the plate. Harper dug in and smoked a 2-2 heater deep into center field for a two-run home run to make it 2-0 Philadelphia.
J.T. Realmuto was up next, but he went down on strikes and Brandon Marsh popped out to shortstop to end the inning. Jesús Luzardo was on the bump for the Phillies, making his third start against his former club. He kicked off his start by getting Otto Lopez to fly out to right, but walked Agustín Ramírez to put a runner on. However, on the first pitch of Jacob Marsee’s at-bat, Ramírez was caught stealing second base after a perfect throw from Realmuto for out number two. Marsee then lined out to center to end the first.
In the top of the second, Harrison Bader led off the inning with a strikeout, and Max Kepler grounded out for two quick outs. Edmundo Sosa singled on a bloop single to left, but Bryson Stott ended the inning after popping out.
Luzardo picked up his first two strikeouts of the game in the second against Heriberto Hernández and Eric Wagaman. Joey Weimer then smoked a double off the left field wall for a two-out double and Miami’s first hit of the game. With a runner in scoring position, Javier Sanoja stepped in, and Luzardo sent him down swinging to end the innings, striking out the side.
Schwarber struck out to start the third, and Bohm walked. Harper was then called out on strikes on a pitch that was outside the zone, and Realmuto grounded out to end the inning. Luzardo continued his dominant strikeout performance in the third, striking out the side one again, this time sending the Marlins down 1-2-3 on just 12 pitches.
Marsh led off the top of the fourth with a double down the right field line, and he didn’t wait at second for long as Bader smacked a single back up the middle, scoring Marsh, making it 3-0 Phillies. The line kept moving after that hit as Kepler smacked a single to left, and after a review on an out call at first, Sosa hit an infield single to load the bases.
Stott was up next, and he smacked a fly ball to center, scoring Bader from third for a sacrifice fly, extending the Phillies’ lead to four. However, a pop-up from Schwarber and a lineout from Bohm ended any chance of more runs for the Phillies.
In the bottom of the fourth, Luzardo ran into real trouble for the first time all afternoon. Ramírez and Marsee singled to start the inning, and after a forceout from Hernández put runners on the corners, Wagaman smoked a double down the left field line to make it 4-1 Phillies.
With runners on second and third with only one out, Luzardo sent Weimer down on strikes for out number two, and instead of sending Sanoja down on strikes again, he chopped a ball up the middle for a single, scoring another run for Miami.
Now only up two runs, the Phillies attempted to get their insurance runs back in the fifth. Harper led the inning with a groundout, but Realmuto picked him up, smacking a double to center. However, with Marsh batting, he smacked a line drive up the middle that Lopez caught, and he doubled up Realmuto at second base to end the inning.
Luzardo went back to work in the fifth, working around a leadoff walk to keep the lead at two runs, but the Phillies went down in order in their half of the sixth. In the seventh, Hernández flew out, but Wagaman walked, bringing the tying run to the plate.
Luzardo picked up his eighth strikeout of the game, sending Weimer down on five pitches, but lost the battle against Sonaja, walking another batter. With two outs and two runners on, Luzardo got Troy Johnston to fly out to center, ending the inning, keeping the Phillies in front.
The Phillies had movement in the seventh with Stott leading the inning off with a double and Schwarber reaching first on another hit by pitch. With no outs and two runners on, things changed quickly after Bohm grounded into a double play and Harper flew out to left to end the inning.
David Robertson was on to pitch in the seventh inning, replacing Luzardo after six innings of two-run ball. However, things didn’t start the way he hoped as Maximo Acosta smoked a leadoff double off the center field wall, bringing up the top of the order with no outs.
Robertson got Lopez to ground out third for out number one, and out number two came thanks to Relamuto, who gunned Acosta out at third on a steal attempt. Ramírez then grounded out to third to end the inning, as the Phillies continued to hold onto their two-run lead.
Marsh smoked another double this time down the left field line, and Bader walked, putting two runners on. A Kepler forceout put runners on the corners, but Sosa struck out looking to end the eighth. Matt Strahm was in charge of the bottom of the eighth, and he got to work right away. He sent the first and second batters of the inning down on strikes while Wagaman weakly popped out to shortstop to end the inning.
In the top of the ninth, both Stott and Schwarber flew out to center with Schwarber just missing his 50th home run on the season by a few feet. Bohm was up next, and he went down swinging on three pitches. Jhoan Duran was on to close out the game for the Phillies, looking for his 11th save on the year for the Phillies, and 27th overall.
Duran made quick work of pinch hitter Liam Hicks, getting him to ground out, and did the same to Sanoja for out number two. Johnston was the last chance for Miami, and after battling, Duran sent him down on six pitches to end the game, with the Phillies winning 4-2.
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
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