PHILADELPHIA — Jesús Luzardo kept giving the Phillies innings. He kept giving them strikeouts. He kept giving them chances.
For eight innings Sunday afternoon, the only thing he couldn’t give them was a run.
Kyle Schwarber finally took care of that.
And then Luzardo came back out and finished the job himself.
Schwarber crushed a 2-2, 99 mph fastball from Didier Fuentes into the second deck in right field in the bottom of the eighth, providing the only run the Phillies needed in a 1-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park.
It was one swing attached to one extraordinary pitching performance.
Luzardo threw a complete-game shutout, allowing only two hits while striking out 12 and walking one. He threw 109 pitches, 78 for strikes, and retired Ozzie Albies on a fly ball to left to finish an afternoon in which Atlanta barely threatened him.
And the Phillies desperately needed it.
They entered the afternoon five games behind the Braves in the National League East. The victory sliced that deficit to four with the calendar increasingly working against Philadelphia.
There was very little margin available Sunday.
Luzardo pitched as though he didn’t need any.
The Phillies actually had their first chance before Luzardo had much time to settle into his afternoon.
Schwarber opened the bottom of the first with a single. Bryce Harper walked, and Alec Bohm eventually drew another walk to load the bases with two outs. But Bryson Stott lined out to center field, leaving all three runners stranded.
It looked like a missed opportunity then.
As the zeros accumulated, it began to look considerably larger.
Grant Holmes escaped the first and never really allowed the Phillies to regain that same kind of pressure. He finished six scoreless innings, surrendering only three hits and two walks while striking out six.
The Phillies' next legitimate opportunity did not arrive until the sixth.
Trea Turner lined a one-out double into left and advanced to third when Harper grounded out. But Luis Arraez flew out to left, stranding Turner 90 feet from the game's first run.
So Luzardo went back to work.
Again.
His strikeout of Lane Thomas to end the seventh gave him 10 for the afternoon and marked the 20th double-digit strikeout game of his career. Through seven, Atlanta had managed almost nothing against him.
Then came the eighth.
Michael Harris II opened the inning with a single that slipped past a diving Arraez, briefly giving Atlanta an opening in a game where one run looked enormous.
Mauricio Dubón followed with a sharply hit grounder.
This time, Arraez was positioned to answer.
The Phillies turned the ball into a double play, erasing Harris and wiping away the threat almost as quickly as it had materialized.
Luzardo still had Austin Riley to deal with.
He finished the inning with the kind of pitch that summed up his afternoon.
An 88 mph sweeper. Down and away. In the strike zone just long enough.
Riley watched it.
Strike three.
Luzardo headed toward the dugout after eight scoreless innings having thrown only 92 pitches, 69 for strikes.
Citizens Bank Park rose with him.
The Phillies had provided almost no offensive support. The crowd provided the appreciation.
Then Schwarber provided the run.
Fuentes retired Bohm and Stott to start the bottom of the eighth, bringing Schwarber to the plate with two outs and another scoreless inning looming.
The count went to 2-2.
Fuentes threw 99 mph.
And he threw it almost exactly where Schwarber would have requested it — over the heart of the plate.
Schwarber obliterated it.
The ball screamed toward right field and disappeared into the second deck, finally breaking the scoreless tie and detonating a ballpark that had spent the previous two-plus hours waiting for somebody to reward Luzardo.
One pitch.
One swing.
One run.
And on this afternoon, that was enough.
The reaction became even louder when Luzardo emerged from the Phillies dugout for the ninth.
At 92 pitches, there would be no bullpen handoff. No matchup game. No asking somebody else to protect the masterpiece.
This was Luzardo's game.
The crowd knew it.
So did he.
Ronald Acuña Jr. drew a one-out walk, bringing the tying run aboard and creating one final bit of tension.
Luzardo answered by getting Drake Baldwin looking for his 12th strikeout.
One out remained.
Albies lifted a fly ball toward left.
Caught.
Game over.
Luzardo had finished all nine himself.
There are September games when the standings seem to sit in the ballpark with everyone else. Every stranded runner feels heavier. Every scoring chance carries more weight. Every mistake threatens to cost more than one game.
This was one of them.
The Phillies entered Sunday five games behind Atlanta, chasing a team that has given them increasingly little room to maneuver.
For eight innings, they were in danger of wasting one of the best starting pitching performances they could possibly have asked for.
Then Schwarber got a 99 mph fastball down the middle.
He hit it into the second deck.
And Luzardo made sure one run was enough.
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