With the phenomenal, almost-perfect year Philadelphia Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo has had, many likely anticipated a dud to show up sooner or later just to normalize things a bit. However, we just didn’t expect it to come in record-breaking fashion.
On Saturday against the Milwaukee Brewers, Luzardo had a horrendous start that he would rather forget. In 3 1/3 innings of work, he gave up a whopping 12 earned runs on 12 hits, along with three walks and just four strikeouts. As a result of the forgettable performance, Luzardo ended up in the franchise record books for all the wrong reasons. The 27-year-old left-hander became the first Phillies pitcher to give up 12 or more runs in a single game since Al Jurisich back in 1947, according to Paul Casella of MLB.com.
Jesús Luzardo finally falls back to earth after incredible start to season
Luzardo was in the midst of an unbelievable 2025 campaign in which he had gone unbeaten in his first 11 starts, while posting a stellar 5-0 record, 2.15 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, and 77 strikeouts in just 67 innings pitched entering Saturday’s matchup. In doing so, he had also joined teammate Ranger Suárez and former pitcher Grover Alexander as the only Phillies pitchers to record a sub-2.00 ERA in their first 10 starts to an MLB season. With Saturday’s outing though, Luzardo saw his ERA balloon all the way to 3.58 and his WHIP to 1.34 just in a blink of an eye.
Why the Phillies left Luzardo in the game for so long was beyond anyone’s mind. Perhaps having manager Rob Thomson ejected from the game due to a balk call on his starter may have played a role in it. But it shouldn’t matter who took over after that, if your starter fails to record an out for six straight batters and the score has been run up to 8-0 already, anyone would know to give them the hook and call it a day. However, without doing so, Luzardo is now left with a blemish that will likely stick with him for some time as a result.
In the end, the Phillies did their best to try to make a game of it, but with the insurmountable lead that the Brewers got out to, Philadelphia would end up falling to Milwaukee 17-7 to drop to 36-22 on the season. To make matters worse, the New York Mets picked up a victory on the day to pull even with the Phillies atop the National League East standings.
For the Phillies, Luzardo, and the fans, this game is certainly one that they should just flush down the toilet and quickly move on to continue to build on the strong season that they have put together so far in 2025.