No matter the situation throughout the season, whether during their current hot streak or when they lost three in a row in New York against the Mets a couple weeks ago, manager Rob Thomson rarely misses the opportunity to remind people how resilient his group is.
Oh, how that sweep by the Mets seems so long ago now as the Phillies climbed out of an early deficit to pin a devastating 6-4 loss on New York and improved to 87-60 on the season, while increasing their lead to 11 games in the National League East. They have won 11 of 14 since that ugly Mets series.
Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo had a first inning against the New York Mets that he’d soon like to forget. But he’ll fondly recall his next seven innings in which he was, literally, perfect.
The visitors racked up four runs on five hits in that opening inning on Luzardo, who needed 23 pitches to get through.
Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto led off the game with consecutive singles and put runners on second and third when they executed a double steal. Singles by Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo each drove in a run before a double by Starling Marte plated two more and before everyone had a chance to settle into their seats.
All Luzardo did after that was retire the next 21 batters he faced.
After striking out Lindor to end the eighth, not only did Phillies fans give him a standing ovation, catcher J.T. Realmuto waited for him on the field for a hug with the whole dugout up and clapping. Luzardo finished the night with 10 strikeouts, no walks and threw only 74 pitches over those last seven perfect innings.
“The whole game was probably as impressive a win as we’ve had all year,” said Rob Thomson. “Luzardo gives up the four in the first, up in the zone a little bit, behind in the count a little bit and then he just settled right in and gave us eight strong. It’s really unbelievable. The offense kept coming. They just didn’t quit. It was just a great win overall.”
One that may not have come had Luzardo not done a complete turnaround after that first in improving to 14-6 on the season.
“The mentality kind of stayed the same of just keep making good pitches,” said Luzardo of his reaction after the first inning. “I felt like I made some good pitches in the first but they found some holes, put some good swings on it. Just understanding their approach, they’re going to swing early, attack and try to get in and out of at-bats quick. Just kind of use…