Phillies

Jesus Luzardo Looks Completely Lost Out of the Stretch

By Luke Arcaini

Published: Jul 24th, 2025 · 10:07 AM EDT

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Jesus Luzardo took a no-hitter into the 5th inning of Wednesday night’s loss to the Red Sox, then all hell broke loose with this sequence:

• Double
• Walk
• Strikeout
• Flyout
• Walk
• Walk (Run Scored)
• Walk (Run Scored)
• Grand Slam

Luzardo is completely lost out of the stretch. The second runners get on base, he’s losing his command and can’t find the strike zone. The stuff gets worse. He’s not striking guys out nearly as much with guys on base.

What’s the issue?

Nobody knows, not even the Phillies themselves.

“We’re still grinding through it,” manager Rob Thomson said after the game. “When you think you’ve got something fixed, it might be something different. You don’t know.”

What the Phillies may not have known at the time, is that Luzardo seemed to be tipping pitches again in that 5th inning. There’s a clip of the Romy Gonzalez grand slam, and you can see Alex Cora relaying some sort of signs to Rob Refsnyder on 2nd base. Some people think they could be signs for baserunning, but signs with the bases loaded to the runners with two outs aren’t really a thing. If the ball is hit, you go.

Here’s the clip. He signals some things to Refsnyder, Gonzalez crushes the ball, and Cora turns to his assistant coach the second he makes contact. It’s pretty obvious that they knew Luzardo’s changeup was coming:

This is a fascinating look at the inner workings of baseball. Looks like Cora guessed/stole the pitch. The signs are probably to the 1B coach, who then relays changeup to the hitter.

There’s so much happening on every pitch. The best sport on earth.pic.twitter.com/v7aGCWsS8E

— Matt McCarthy (@MattMcCarthy985) July 24, 2025

Luzardo has allowed a .250 batting average with no runners on base this season. It goes up to .291 with runners on. He’s faced 284 batters with no runners on base, and has walked 21 of those guys. He’s faced 207 hitters with men on, and has walked 22 of them. His command plummets once he turns to the stretch.

Said Luzardo after the game, via Matt Gelb at The Athletic:

“Clearly, it’s not working. So, working tirelessly to fix it. It’s been over a month now. The first 12 starts were incredible in the sense that there was never a problem. And then, now, it’s always been a issue. Out of the wind-up clearly isn’t the problem. It’s when we get in the stretch. I feel like other teams know that. Just back to the drawing board in terms of that.”

The Cy-Young candidate through 10 starts, who once held a 1.95 ERA this year, is now sitting at 4.58, the 58th-best in baseball. The tipping is a problem, but the command tops any sign stealing availability. He looks like a completely different pitcher once there’s a runner behind him. The Phillies will put one or two of their starters in the bullpen come October. Luzardo seems to be a lead candidate for one of those spots. But if he can’t pitch out of the stretch, then he won’t succeed out of the pen in October.