Jesus Luzardo K’s nine, Phillies smash 3 homers in 6-1 victory over Kansas City
Jesus Luzardo threw six innings of one-run ball on Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium with nine strikeouts, zero walks, four hits allowed, and a career-high 15 swings-and-misses on his sweeper alone in a 6-1 win over the Royals that pushed the Phillies to 41-20 under Mattingly and gave the franchise a lifetime record of 107-107 on Independence Day.
Talk about the perfect American stat imaginable for a team celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday by beating up on the Royals in Kansas City behind the best left-handed pitcher in the National League, who by the way, doesn’t get nearly enough credit for what he’s been doing on the road all season.
Luzardo is 5-0 with a 1.54 ERA in 10 road starts this season compared to 2-4 with a 6.60 ERA in eight starts at Citizens Bank Park, and the home-road split continues to be one of the strangest statistical anomalies of the entire Phillies season because the man is unhittable away from South Philadelphia and very hittable at home for reasons that nobody in the organization has been able to fully explain.
The road version of Luzardo is an ace who can match up with any pitcher in baseball on any given night and Saturday in Kansas City was the latest evidence that the Phillies have a legitimate number three starter who pitches like a number one every time the team bus pulls into a visiting city.
Jesus Luzardo Sweeper Addition
Luzardo didn’t start throwing the sweeper until he joined the Phillies in 2025 and in less than two full seasons the pitch has become so dominant that 70 of his 125 strikeouts this season have come on the sweeper, which means 56 percent of his total strikeouts are generated by a pitch he’s only been throwing for a year and a half.
Six of his nine strikeouts on Saturday came on sweepers and he generated 15 swings and misses on the pitch alone out of 19 total whiffs on the night, which is a career high that tells you the sweeper was absolutely filthy against a Royals lineup that knew it was coming and still couldn’t do anything about it.
The pitch averaged 87.1 mph with the kind of horizontal movement that makes right-handed hitters look foolish and left-handed hitters chase balls that start in the zone and end up six inches off the plate.
Luzardo credited pitching coaches Caleb Cotham and Mark Lowy for suggesting a tweak in his wrist positioning to get the sweeper back on track, which is the kind of coaching adjustment that separates good pitching staffs from great ones because identifying a mechanical fix for an elite pitch that wasn’t quite right and implementing it mid-season is exactly what the Phillies’ coaching staff has been doing all year to keep the top three starters performing at a historically high level.
Luzardo paired the sweeper with a four-seam fastball that topped out at 98.7 mph, which is the kind of velocity-breaking ball combination that makes him virtually unhittable when both pitches are working because hitters have to commit to the fastball early enough to catch up to 98 mph and then somehow adjust when Luzardo throws the sweeper at 87 mph with a completely different trajectory.
Ninety-five pitches through six innings with zero walks and 19 whiffs is the kind of pitching efficiency that the Phillies need from the third spot in the rotation and Luzardo delivered it on a night where the offense gave him plenty of support from an unexpected part of the lineup.
Bottom of the Order Comes Through for the Phillies
Before the game it was announced that Brandon Marsh, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Jhoan Duran, and Cristopher Sanchez all made the National League All-Star team with Mattingly joining the coaching staff, which means the Phillies are sending five representatives to the Midsummer Classic at Citizens Bank Park on July 14 and the manager who took over a 9-19 team will be in the NL dugout coaching in front of the home crowd.
Five All-Stars from a team that was dead and buried in late April is the most emphatic validation of the turnaround that Mattingly has engineered and every single one of those selections is deserved based on the numbers each player has put up since the managerial change.
The biggest offensive contributions on Saturday came from players who won’t be in the All-Star Game because Realmuto, Rincones, and Bohm provided all the power the Phillies needed against Kansas City starter Michael Wacha while the All-Stars in the lineup took a backseat to the bottom half of the order.
Stott singled with one out in the fourth before Realmuto lined a two-run homer to left and Rincones cracked a solo shot to right two pitches later to make it 3-0 in the span of about 45 seconds. Bohm went deep to center in the sixth to push the lead back to three after the Royals had gotten one back against Luzardo in the fourth, and the Phillies tacked on runs in the seventh and eighth to put the game away at 6-1.
JT Realmuto RING IT
Gabriel Rincones Jr RING IT
Alec Bohm RING IT
The bottom of the lineup producing three homers on a night where the top of the order didn’t need to carry the offense is exactly the kind of balanced production that championship teams generate in July because you can’t rely on Schwarber, Harper, and Marsh to hit every night. The ability of Realmuto, Rincones, Bohm, and Stott to contribute meaningful offense when the All-Stars have quiet nights is what separates a good team from a complete team.
Bowlan Went Back to Kansas City and Struck Out Three
Jonathan Bowlan was traded from the Royals to the Phillies last winter and Saturday night was his first game back at Kauffman Stadium wearing the opposing uniform, and the right-hander responded by striking out three batters in a scoreless seventh inning that bridged the gap between Luzardo’s exit and the Kerkering-Mayza combination that closed out the final two innings.
The bullpen combining for three scoreless innings with zero walks after Luzardo’s six innings of one-run ball gave the Phillies 15 strikeouts and zero walks on the night, which is the kind of dominant pitching performance that you don’t usually see from a staff that has been dealing with bullpen inconsistency all season.
The pitching staff holding a lineup to one run on five hits with 15 strikeouts and zero walks is the best collective pitching performance the Phillies have had in weeks and it came on a night where the defense was clean and the offense provided early support so nobody had to press or try to manufacture runs in the late innings.
Saturday was the kind of stress-free win that the Phillies haven’t had enough of this season because so many of their victories have required ninth-inning heroics and comeback rallies that drain the bullpen and exhaust the fanbase emotionally.
41-20 Under Mattingly and Five All-Stars Going to The Bank
The Phillies are 50-39 with a 41-20 record under Mattingly that has transformed a team that was being measured for a coffin in late April into one of the best teams in the National League heading into the All-Star break.
Five players representing the Phillies at the Midsummer Classic at their own ballpark with the manager coaching in the NL dugout is the kind of mid-season recognition that this franchise hasn’t earned in years and the selections reflect the collective excellence that has defined the Mattingly era from the first game forward.
Marsh’s .322 average and 15 homers earned him his first All-Star nod. Schwarber’s 30 homers leading the majors made him an obvious selection. Harper’s .906 OPS and 57 RBI with the heavy bat locked in made him unavoidable. Duran closing games at a dominant level anchoring the bullpen got him there. And Sanchez with his 1.80 ERA and the best left-handed pitching season in the National League made him one of the most deserving selections on the entire roster.
Nola goes Sunday afternoon against Luinder Avila to try to take the series from Kansas City before the Phillies head to Cincinnati for three and then Detroit for three before the break. The schedule is soft, the pitching staff is dealing, the offense is producing from top to bottom, and five Phillies are heading to the All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park with Mattingly on the coaching staff.
Happy 250th, America. The Phillies celebrated with a 6-1 win on the road behind Luzardo’s sweeper and three homers from the bottom of the order. Good times in Kansas City.
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