CINCINNATI -- Jesús Luzardo didn’t pitch with a massive chip on his shoulder on Thursday night, like Zack Wheeler did on Tuesday night.
But Luzardo showed everybody why he was named to the NL All-Star team on Tuesday as a replacement. Luzardo allowed two hits, two walks and struck out 11 in seven scoreless innings in a 1-0 victory over the Reds at Great American Ball Park to win the three-game series.
Luzardo improved to 8-4 with a 3.51 ERA.
“Lately, thankfully, my stuff’s been feeling pretty good and I’ve been coming out with a good mentality, trying to get ahead and stay on the attack the whole time,” Luzardo said.
Luzardo is fun to watch when he is on the attack. He was fired up after getting Noelvi Marte to fly out to right field to end the second inning. Luzardo started pointing into the Reds’ dugout and even started to walk in that direction when home-plate umpire Mike Estabrook walked up to him.
Somebody was chirping at Luzardo from the Reds’ dugout.
“Yeah, just a little bit,” Luzardo said, smiling. “Just a little heated competition. I think it helps me at times finding a little bit of an edge, so I don't think it's a bad thing.”
Anybody in particular say something?
“It was in English,” Luzardo said, declining to reveal the source of his ire. “That’s about it.”
But Luzardo was calm and collected when he returned to work in the third inning.
“Like I said, a heated competition,” he said. “I think everyone wants to compete.”
Luzardo generated 20 swings and misses, including 12 coming on his sweeper. He struck out eight on his sweeper, the third-highest strikeout total on the pitch since he started throwing it last season. Luzardo got a career-high 10 strikeouts with it on June 23. He got seven on June 10.
“I feel like I got back in the rhythm of the feel for it, finding the zone with it, and then finding the swing and miss underneath the zone, as well,” he said.
The Phillies took a 1-0 lead in the eighth inning. After Gabriel Rincones Jr. got hit by a pitch, pinch-runner Derek Hill advanced to second on a fielder’s choice and later scored on Justin Crawford’s single to right field.
Crawford is batting .361 (26-for-72) with three doubles, one triple, eight RBIs and an .817 OPS in his last 24 games.
“It feels like I’m just trying to move the needle,” Crawford said.
Jhoan Duran put the first two runners on base in the ninth, but he retired the next three batters following a mound visit from pitching coach Caleb Cotham.
“Not sure what the magic words were, but it worked,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said. “I think he said something about, ‘Get ‘em out.’”