Jesús Luzardo looks to make small tweaks to fix rough start to season: ‘It’s not reinventing the wheel’
PHILADELPHIA — Jesús Luzardo said last Wednesday that he wanted to “dive deeper” into what’s been going wrong after his nine-run, 12-hit outing against the Chicago Cubs at Citizens Bank Park.
The left-hander insisted that he wasn’t tipping his pitches, but by Friday afternoon, he didn’t have an exact answer.
“I’m still looking,” Luzardo said. “I guess it could be pitch sequencing. I hate to say bad luck on some of the stuff. But I think it’s a combination of a little bit of bad luck, a little bit of pitch sequencing on my end and a little bit of execution on my end. So I think just when I do a little bit better of the execution and the pitch sequencing mixed with a little bit better luck, things will turn.”
Luzardo has a 7.94 ERA through four starts, and he’s allowed the most earned runs of any National Legue pitcher with 20. He’s an accountable guy who does not tend to make excuses after he pitches poorly, so he doesn’t like blaming the luck factor. At the same time, he’s running a 2.87 FIP and racking up six strikeouts per walk. He does not want to make large-scale adjustments that could damage him in the long run just because the early results have not been there.
“I think it’s tough to sit here and look at the ERA and not hit the panic button,” Luzardo said. “But at the same time, we’re four starts in and my stuff’s the best that it has ever been in my career. And I think a lot of things under my control, I’m not doing to the best of my abilities and I think I could do a little bit better, and then things that are out of my control are also not going my way.”
Luzardo needs to do something about the base hits he’s allowing and the problems he’s dealt with out of the stretch. He plans to “stay the course” along with a few tweaks. Both the lefty and Phillies manager Rob Thomson mentioned the usage of his sinker as one spot to monitor. Luzardo threw more sinkers (25) than four-seam fastballs (20) in his last outing. Last year, he threw his four-seamer 33% of the time and his sinker only 11%.
Luzardo said he could also do a better job throwing his new changeup for a strike, even if it’s getting swings-and-misses.
Traded to the Phillies from the Marlins before last season, Luzardo posted a 3.92 ERA in 32 starts in 2025. He bounced back from injury issues that hurt him in Miami to become a rotation weapon for Philadelphia, earning him a lucrative five-year extension this March. But the handful of blowup starts were present last year and prevented his numbers from finishing alongside the elite starting pitchers in the game.
So far in 2026, Luzardo has had three starts with five or more earned runs. He’s had innings where he can’t quite stop the bleeding. But the 28-year-old is confident he can turn it around, just as he did midseason last year after his worst stretch.
He’ll be able to showcase his adjustments in another chance to face the Cubs on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.
“I think there’s slight changes to be made,” Luzardo said. “But it’s not reinventing the wheel. I’m not pressing like the sky is falling. I think I need to make slight adjustments and that, eventually, this game will even out for me.”