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Jesus Luzardo - Phillies - Philadelphia Baseball Review
The Phillies arrived at Petco Park on Memorial Day needing somebody to navigate the chaos.

They got six innings of escape artistry from Jesús Luzardo.

And, for one more afternoon, that was enough.

The Phillies scratched out just three hits through the first six innings Monday against Padres right-hander Griffin Canning. But a first-inning laser from Kyle Schwarber and a late insurance shot from Brandon Marsh carried them to a 3-0 win over the Padres at Petco Park.

It was not crisp. It was not clean. It was the kind of game the Phillies have spent too much of this season failing to finish.

This time, they finished it.

The afternoon could have unraveled immediately. Instead, it became a showcase for Luzardo’s ability to survive innings that once buried him.

Schwarber wasted little time giving the Phillies a lead, turning on a fastball from Canning in the top of the first and rifling it into the seats in right-center for his latest leadoff thunderbolt. But whatever momentum came with it disappeared quickly in the bottom half.

San Diego loaded the bases with nobody out after two singles and a throwing error by Trea Turner. Petco Park stirred. The inning had all the markings of another Luzardo avalanche inning — the kind that inflated his ERA early this season and repeatedly turned manageable starts into disasters.

Instead, Luzardo found another gear.

He struck out Manny Machado. Then he blew a fastball past Jackson Merrill. Then he got former Phillie Nick Castellanos to roll over a ground ball to escape untouched.

Twenty-seven pitches. Bases loaded. Nobody out.

No damage.

That sequence became the game.

Because the traffic never really stopped.

The Padres put runners on in the third. Luzardo responded by getting Machado to bounce into an inning-ending double play. They threatened again in the fifth after a walk and a hit batter. Again, Luzardo escaped, stranding both runners and preserving a one-run lead that felt painfully thin all afternoon.

The Phillies needed every pitch.

Luzardo threw 104 of them over six scoreless innings, allowing four hits, walking two and striking out six. It was his third straight quality start and another sign that the left-hander’s season is beginning to stabilize after an ugly opening month.

The overall ERA — now 4.38 — still carries scars from earlier blowups. There was the six-run disaster. The five-run outings. The eight-run nightmare. For stretches this season, one crooked inning consumed entire starts.

But lately, Luzardo has stopped the bleeding before it becomes fatal.

That matters.

The Phillies do not need him to pitch like an ace every fifth day. They need him to prevent games from collapsing while the rotation behind Zack Wheeler searches for consistency and while Aaron Nola tries to rediscover himself after three brutal outings.

Monday looked like another game teetering toward disaster.

Luzardo refused to let it go there.

Meanwhile, the offense did almost nothing against Canning, who entered the afternoon carrying a 9.00 ERA in four starts with San Diego. After Schwarber’s homer, the Phillies managed only scattered traffic until the seventh inning, when Schwarber singled and Bryce Harper walked to begin a rally.

Even then, it nearly evaporated.

Alec Bohm grounded into a double play, and another wasted opportunity loomed. But Marsh attacked a 2-0 pitch and hooked it into the right-field seats for a two-run homer that finally gave the Phillies breathing room.

For a team that has spent much of 2026 struggling to create separation in games, it felt enormous.

From there, the bullpen finished it cleanly.

Orion Kerkering worked a scoreless seventh. Brad Keller handled the eighth. Then Jhoan Durán slammed the door in the ninth for his 100th career save and his 10th in 10 opportunities this season.

The Phillies climbed back to .500 at 27-27.

Which, in late May, still says almost everything about them.

Some nights, they look capable of overwhelming anybody. Other nights, they look one bad inning away from unraveling completely. Monday landed somewhere in between — imperfect baseball held together by timely power, dominant late relief and a starting pitcher who spent the afternoon walking a tightrope without ever falling off it.

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