Jesús Luzardo needed only 1 hour and 51 minutes to pitch all of them.
In the shortest nine-inning Phillies game in more than 37 years, Luzardo authored the first complete game and first shutout of his career, overpowering Atlanta before Kyle Schwarber supplied the only run with a towering eighth-inning homer in a 1-0 victory at Citizens Bank Park.
It was fast. It was tense. And for a Phillies team that began the afternoon five games behind Atlanta in the National League East, it was necessary.
“We all knew what we had to do today,” Luzardo said. “We had to win.”
They did, trimming Atlanta’s division lead to four games.
Luzardo allowed only two hits, struck out 12 and walked one while throwing 109 pitches, 78 for strikes. He reached double-digit strikeouts for the 20th time in his career and, for the first time, walked onto a major-league mound in the ninth inning.
The entire afternoon lasted 1:51, the Phillies’ shortest nine-inning game since July 4, 1989, when Terry Mulholland went the distance in a 2-1 loss to Cincinnati at Veterans Stadium. That game lasted 1:44.
“I like pitching fast and I like fast games,” Luzardo said. “I also don’t mind a long inning offensively. But I didn’t have much time between innings to recover, and I’m OK with that as well. If you’re in a roll, I enjoy the fast pace.”
Luzardo has been on considerably more than a roll.
Dating to May 14, he owns a 1.93 ERA over his last 21 starts, a stretch that has turned him into one of the most dependable pieces of a rotation the Phillies will need if they are going to make September interesting.
Monday may have been the best of them all.
The final line was dominant. The underlying numbers were arguably even better.
Luzardo generated 23 swings and misses on 59 Atlanta swings, a 39 percent whiff rate. Add 19 called strikes and 42 of his 109 pitches resulted in either a called strike or a whiff. Braves hitters chased 46 percent of the pitches he threw outside the strike zone.
And Luzardo was ahead from the beginning. He threw a first-pitch strike to 24 of the 30 batters he faced.
“I would say after the first, just kind of seeing the swings,” Luzardo said. “Every day it feels pretty much the same, but based off the swings we’re getting, you can kind of read how they’re seeing it, how they’re receiving it.”
The sweeper was the centerpiece.
Luzardo threw it 41 times, more than any other pitch, and generated 12 whiffs on 22 swings with it. Six of his 12 strikeouts ended on the pitch. His four-seam fastball was nearly as damaging: 36 pitches, nine whiffs and five strikeouts.
Together, those two pitches accounted for 11 of his 12 strikeouts.
Schwarber could see early that Atlanta had a problem.
“He’s just always got good stuff,” Schwarber said. “When he’s in the zone like that and getting swings and misses and freezes, chase, whatever it is, he’s just been great.”
And perhaps the most telling number came at the end.
Luzardo’s four-seam fastball averaged 96.3 mph for the game. In the ninth inning, after more than 90 pitches and with his first career complete game sitting three outs away, it averaged 97.4.
He wasn’t hanging on.
“You can’t say enough about what he’s done,” Schwarber said. “He keeps working hard. I think that’s a really cool thing, too, is that he’s never satisfied. He wants to keep finding a way to get better.”
The Phillies initially appeared capable of giving Luzardo considerably more support.
Schwarber singled to begin the bottom of the first against Grant Holmes. Bryce Harper walked and Alec Bohm eventually drew another two-out walk to load the bases, but Bryson Stott lined out to center.
Holmes escaped.
Then he settled in.
The Atlanta right-hander went six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and two walks while striking out six. Philadelphia’s next significant opportunity came in the sixth, when Trea Turner doubled with one out and moved to third on Harper’s groundout.
Luis Arraez flew out.
Still 0-0.
That left Luzardo pitching without margin for error.
He didn’t make one.
His strikeout of Lane Thomas to finish the seventh was his 10th of the afternoon. Through eight innings, Luzardo had thrown only 92 pitches, 69 for strikes.
Even the eighth-inning trouble disappeared almost instantly.
Michael Harris II led off with a single past a diving Arraez. Mauricio Dubón followed with a sharply hit grounder that the Phillies turned into a double play, erasing Atlanta’s most significant late threat almost as quickly as it developed.
Luzardo then finished Austin Riley with an 88 mph sweeper down and away that caught the zone for strike three.
Citizens Bank Park stood.
Luzardo walked toward the dugout to a standing ovation.
At that moment, however, the game remained scoreless.
Two outs into the bottom of the eighth, Schwarber changed it.
Didier Fuentes got him into a two-strike count. Schwarber’s approach wasn’t to manufacture a heroic moment. It was simply to keep the at-bat alive.
“You get in a two-strike count, it’s kind of the same thing where you’re trying to find a way on base,” Schwarber said. “It’s not thinking it’s a homer. It’s not thinking anything like that. It’s just trying to find a way on.”
Then Fuentes made the mistake.
A 99 mph fastball, middle of the plate.
Schwarber obliterated it.
The ball rocketed into the second deck in right field, finally breaking the scoreless tie and giving Luzardo the only run he would receive.
“He’s obviously got a really good heater and good other pitches, but he leaves one middle and I was just able to get the barrel there to it,” Schwarber said. “There’s no sort of expectation in the mind. It’s just more of trying to keep battling and keep trying to find a way.”
One swing.
One run.
And suddenly the entire building seemed to understand what might come next.
Luzardo had thrown only 92 pitches.
Then he appeared from the dugout for the ninth.
The crowd erupted.
Schwarber said the Phillies’ dugout reacted right along with it.
“You turn your head and you see Zeus come out,” Schwarber said. “The team gets excited, and obviously the fan base sees him run out. Forty-thousand-plus, they get on their feet and they’re rocking and rolling there for the ninth.”
Luzardo had never pitched into the ninth inning in the majors.
“I don’t know if it was the sixth or the seventh, I looked up and I had like 72 pitches,” Luzardo said. “I knew we had a chance. I’m thankful for Donnie for giving me the chance to go back out in the ninth. Though it was just one run, I try to be as efficient as possible.”
Ronald Acuña Jr. made the ending interesting by drawing a one-out walk.
For the first time all afternoon, Luzardo had the tying run aboard in the ninth.
He never looked tired.
“I felt like I had a lot more in the tank,” he said. “I’ve had games earlier in the year where I feel like I had to dig a little bit more, where I was more worn out. I felt really good going back out in the ninth. It could have been adrenaline or emotions, whatever it might have been, but I did feel strong.”
The radar gun backed him up.
Luzardo struck out Drake Baldwin looking and then got Ozzie Albies to lift a fly ball to left.
Brandon Marsh settled underneath it.
Ballgame.
There was no bullpen handoff. No reliever finishing what Luzardo had started.
All 27 outs belonged to him.
“Unbelievable game by him,” Schwarber said. “Efficient is a great word. He keeps finding a way to keep getting better and better, which is awesome.”
The Phillies needed the response.
They were chasing Atlanta. September was getting shorter. And opportunities to make up ground directly against the team ahead of them were becoming more valuable.
“We know where we’re at in the season,” Schwarber said. “It’s crunch time, and we want to keep pushing. We want to keep trying to find ways to stack wins.”
Four games still separate the Phillies and Braves.
But on an afternoon when Philadelphia could not afford to squander elite starting pitching, Luzardo gave them nine innings and Schwarber made one pitch count.
The baseball from the final out, Luzardo said afterward, will probably go to his parents.
There is only one first complete game.
Only one first shutout.
And on Monday, only one run was required.
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