Jesús Luzardo has spent the better part of three months making one of the Phillies’ nicest preseason luxuries look more like an October necessity.
Tuesday night provided another example.
Luzardo controlled Arizona for 6 2/3 innings, Bryce Harper reached base in all five of his plate appearances and the Phillies pulled away late for a 7-1 victory over the Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
The Phillies have won six straight. They have won 15 of 17. At 79-60, they moved alone into the top National League wild-card position after Chicago lost Tuesday, while Atlanta’s loss in Washington reduced the Phillies’ deficit in the NL East to three games.
Those are the numbers that will dominate the next few weeks.
Tuesday offered another worth considering.
1.86.
That is Luzardo’s ERA since June 10, a stretch in which he has gone 9-1 and the Phillies have won 13 of his 15 starts. His season ERA is down to 3.02, and his 209 strikeouts rank second in the National League.
The Phillies have Zack Wheeler. They have Cristopher Sánchez. They have Aaron Nola, who held Arizona to one run Monday night.
And increasingly, they have Luzardo pitching like somebody who belongs in any conversation about who should get the baseball when a game absolutely has to be won.
This wasn't a night built around overpowering Arizona with strikeouts. Luzardo struck out six, walked one and scattered six hits. Jordan Lawlar’s solo home run with two outs in the fifth accounted for the only run against him.
Mostly, Luzardo kept the game where Philadelphia wanted it.
The Phillies led 2-0 before Arizona came to bat.
Kyle Schwarber opened the game with a walk against Eduardo Rodriguez, and Trea Turner followed by driving an RBI double off the center-field wall. Harper then pushed a bunt single past the mound, putting runners at the corners with nobody out. Luis Arraez grounded into a double play, but Turner scored to make it 2-0.
That early lead lasted because Luzardo never allowed Arizona to gather an inning.
There is a difference.
The Diamondbacks reached base. They made Luzardo work. They put him into situations where one extra-base hit could have changed the direction of the game.
It never came.
Arizona has gone 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position through the first two games of the series. The Diamondbacks have scored two runs in 18 innings against Phillies pitching.
Luzardo’s recent numbers suggest this is considerably more than one good night.
In six starts since the beginning of August, the left-hander has allowed six earned runs over 41 innings while striking out 52 and walking 10. He has been especially difficult away from Citizens Bank Park, improving to 9-0 with a 1.76 ERA in 15 road starts.
That kind of production changes the depth of a rotation.
It also makes nights like Tuesday easier on everyone else.
Harper certainly helped.
He went 4-for-4 with a walk, an RBI and a run scored, extending his career-best on-base streak to 34 games. All four hits were singles, which somehow made the performance more interesting.
Harper didn't need the upper deck.
He simply refused to disappear from an inning.
Over his last nine games, Harper is 17-for-34, a .500 average, with multiple hits in seven of those games. His season average has climbed to .274 and his OPS to .901.
Tuesday was a useful snapshot of the hitter Harper has become lately.
The first-inning bunt single came with the defense giving him room. In the fifth, he singled and eventually scored when Alec Bohm drove him home. In the eighth, Harper singled again to bring home Philadelphia’s sixth run.
No home runs. No theatrical bat flip. No ball bouncing around the pool area.
Five plate appearances. Five times on base.
For a lineup that already has Schwarber’s power and Turner’s ability to create offense near the top, this version of Harper may be every bit as troublesome as the one trying to hit everything 430 feet.
The Phillies carried only a 3-1 lead into the seventh despite collecting chances against Rodriguez, who allowed eight hits and three walks in five innings.
That made the end of Luzardo’s night important.
He departed with two runners aboard and two outs in the seventh. Geraldo Perdomo came to the plate representing the tying run.
Jonathan Bowlan entered.
Strikeout.
It was the pitch that kept the game from becoming something else.
Instead of Arizona getting into the Phillies’ bullpen with momentum and the tying run somewhere on the bases, Bowlan ended the inning. Philadelphia then turned a two-run margin into a five-run cushion in the eighth.
Justin Crawford delivered a pinch-hit RBI single. Schwarber followed with a sacrifice fly. Harper drove in another run with his fourth single.
Bryson Stott added a sacrifice fly in the ninth.
The Phillies finished with 13 hits and seven runs without hitting a home run. Bohm and Arraez added two hits apiece.
There was something refreshing about that, too.
Monday belonged to Bryson Stott’s 464-foot homer, Nola and a bullpen asked to make two runs survive.
Tuesday required something completely different.
The Phillies scored immediately, spent most of the evening protecting a modest lead, then buried Arizona once the Diamondbacks’ bullpen opened the door.
Bowlan and Chase Shugart made sure there was no late drama. Bowlan cleaned up Luzardo’s seventh-inning trouble and worked through the eighth before Shugart finished the ninth.
That left the Phillies’ higher-leverage relievers untouched one night after Don Mattingly used five pitchers behind Nola.
It also leaves the bullpen in considerably better shape for Wednesday.
And Wednesday is no throwaway getaway game.
Andrew Painter is scheduled to face Taylor Clarke at 3:40 p.m. as the Phillies try for their seventh consecutive victory and their fifth sweep in six series.
A win also would finish something Philadelphia came to Arizona needing to do.
The Diamondbacks remain directly involved in the wild-card race. Taking the first two games has already created separation. Taking all three would give Philadelphia another game in the standings and send it home without leaving anything behind.
Because what follows is considerably larger.
Atlanta arrives at Citizens Bank Park Friday for a four-game series, not three. The Phillies then visit the Braves for three more beginning Sept. 11.
Seven head-to-head games remain.
The distance between the clubs is three.
That makes Wednesday more than an opportunity to put a bow on another good series.
Luzardo did his part Tuesday. Harper reached base every time he walked up. The Phillies scored seven without a homer and got through nine innings without touching the back end of their bullpen.
They have put themselves in position to board the flight home with every game they came to Arizona to get.
Then Atlanta walks into Citizens Bank Park.
Three games separate them. Seven games against each other remain.
At this point, there is no reason to dress up the stakes.
The Phillies have gotten close enough to the Braves that they no longer need help to make this race interesting. They can do it themselves.
Loading the latest Phillies coverage...
Loading Phillies schedule...
Loading NL East standings...
