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Jesus Luzardo Has the Best ERA in Baseball Since August 1st
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Ho hum, just another lights out performance from Jesus Luzardo.
He went 6.2 innings on Tuesday night in Arizona, allowing just one run on six hits while striking out six and walking one batter. Funny thing is that he was annoyed that he couldn’t close the door in the 7th inning:
Now that’s a competitor! Philly tough, blah blah etc.
Zeus has been on fire this summer. It feels like we haven’t talked about him much, though. Maybe that’s because Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter started to figure it out, and Cris Sanchez was dealing while Zack Wheeler struggled. Bryce Harper began to rake and the Luis Arraez acquisition stole some of the attention. Yet Luzardo continued to plug away, just quietly mowing down fools and left and right while looking ace-like on the mound. For real. He’s putting up ace-like numbers currently, and has the best ERA in baseball going back to August 1st, when the Phils started to put it together as a team:
That’s from our Sportradar data. Luzardo has pitched 41 innings over his last six starts, allowing just six earned runs and 27 hits. He’s conceded three home runs and 12 extra-base hits while striking out 52 batters, which also happens to be #1 if you filter by that statistic. Gavin Williams is #2 with 49 strikeouts since August 1st.
Luzardo’s only bad start over the past two months was an aberration six-run game down in Miami, but he’s been so solid for most of the summer.
What’s also great to see is that Sanchez and Nola are on this list. The Phillies have three pitchers in the top 20 of ERA over the past month or so. Painter has a 3.95 ERA in the time frame, which is perfectly fine considering he was sent down earlier in the season and is currently the 5th starter. And while Wheeler had been off, he went out on Sunday against the Angels and delivered six innings of one-run, four-hit baseball. He looked much more like himself out there.
The Phillies are HOT. They already won the series against the D Backs and these upcoming Braves games are HUGE.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com