Jesús Luzardo bounces back to lead Phillies to series win over Cubs

Lochlahn March, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jun 11, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PHILADELPHIA — There was a moment in the second inning Wednesday when it seemed like things were about to spiral out of control for Jesús Luzardo.

The Phillies left-hander had given up a historically bad 20 earned runs across his previous two starts, which had both begun to unravel shortly after his first pitch of the game. After a scoreless first inning against the Chicago Cubs, though, Luzardo gave up a pair of singles to lead off the second.

Neither balls were hit particularly hard. But with two runners on and zero outs, it felt like Luzardo could be teetering on the edge of yet another disaster. Especially since Luzardo believed he had been tipping his pitches in his last two starts, possibly to runners behind him on second base.

But this time, he fired back, striking out Nico Hoerner on three pitches and also sitting down the next two batters swinging to strand both runners. He went on to record 10 strikeouts in the 7-2 Phillies win, looking much more like the pitcher he’d been in his first 11 starts, rather than the one who had cratered against the Brewers and Blue Jays.

The Cubs entered Wednesday tied with the Dodgers for the major league lead in runs scored with 376. But they didn’t seem to know what was coming from Luzardo, as the only hard hits they managed were a pair of doubles in the fourth inning that accounted for their only run off him.

Luzardo’s command was as sharp as it had been all season. Not only did he not allow a walk through six innings, he only had one three-ball count.

It also helped that the Phillies’ offense awakened to give him a comfortable lead. In the first two games of the series, the Phillies mustered just three total extra-base hits. They surpassed that by the end of the fourth inning on Wednesday, with doubles from Max Kepler and Trea Turner, a triple from Nick Castellanos that was just a few feet from leaving the ballpark, and a home run from Kyle Schwarber.

Alec Bohm joined the slugfest in the seventh inning with a solo shot to cap a four-RBI day. Apart from Johan Rojas, every member of the lineup recorded at least one hit.

Max Lazar took over for Luzardo and allowed one run on two hits and a fielding error in the eighth. Michael Mercado, recalled on Wednesday morning from Triple-A Lehigh Valley, pitched a scoreless ninth inning.

With the series win, the Phillies ended a skid of three consecutive series losses.