Luzardo looks healthy, hits 98 in spring debut: ‘Arm just feels alive again’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
CLEARWATER, Fla. — A day after Jose Alvarado hit triple-digits with his heater and Jordan Romano ranged from 96-98 mph in his first game action since last May, the Phillies’ top offseason acquisition showed how healthy he is, too.
Jesus Luzardo retired all six Red Sox batters he faced over two scoreless innings of his spring training debut on a beautiful afternoon at BayCare Ballpark. He threw 19 pitches, 14 for strikes, six of which were swings-and-misses.
Luzardo’s first three pitches were 96, 97 and 97 mph and he touched 98 with his sinker in the first inning, a great sign given this was his first appearance in a game since last June 16. He missed the final 3½ months a season ago with a stress reaction in his lower back.
“It definitely feels like I’m back and healthy,” he said at his locker after exiting. “It’s not forced, it’s not over-exerting myself, it’s more free and easy working down the mound.
“The arm just feels alive again.”
The strikeouts came on 90 and 88 mph changeups, a pitch from Luzardo that has held opposing hitters below .200 in two of the last three seasons.
He also has a slider that he referred to as his “bread and butter” and has toyed a bit with a second, more sweepy slider this spring.
What does Luzardo consider his best pitch?
“I think it’s the way stuff plays off each other,” he said. “It goes day to day. My fastball is the pitch I lean on the most but there’s days that the slider feels amazing, there’s days that the changeup feels amazing. I’m thankful that every time out there I have multiple options to use.”
The changeup was a bit firmer than Luzardo expected on Friday, possibly because he’s been waiting so long to step back onto a mound in a game setting. His velocity was up across the board compared to last season, but that’s also because he wasn’t healthy in ’24. The back injury caused him trouble brushing his teeth, much less throwing a mid-90s fastball.
“The stress reaction was just basically a vertebra on the spine getting bothered by constant stress, constant rotation or the lack of rotation,” Luzardo said. “At one point, it just gets really irritated. It bothered me doing a lot of things — tying my shoes, bending over, brushing my teeth, rotating on the mound.
“I couldn’t do much. I could barely rotate. It got to a point where I couldn’t…