Jesus Luzardo has his best start with the Marlins in series-clinching win over Reds
The Miami Marlins have been waiting for that breakthrough moment with Jesus Luzardo, the game where he finally puts it all together and has a dominant performance.
They just might have gotten it on Sunday.
Luzardo tied a career high with eight strikeouts over six shutout innings as the Marlins beat the Cincinnati Reds 2-1 at loanDepot park to clinch the three-game series and win four of six overall on the homestand. Miami improves to 55-76 on the season while the Reds fall to 71-61.
“It does a lot for me,” Luzardo said. “Just being able to see that I have it in me, against a great ballclub like that, it’s just more of a confidence thing, more on the mental side of it. It really helped me out. Something I want to build off of and continue to progress.”
What was the difference? Two factors might have been in play.
The first: Luzardo wore glasses on the mound Sunday for the first time this season. He has worn glasses since he was 9 but opted to wear contact lenses this season, a year in which he entered Sunday with a 7.91 ERA in 18 games (including a 9.67 ERA in five starts with the Marlins).
“It was more of a feel thing,” Luzardo said. “I kind of felt like I needed to go back to my old ways after I tried something new. I’ll probably wear them for the rest of the year and I’d say probably the rest of my career.”
The second: Sandy Leon was Luzardo’s catcher on Sunday after Alex Jackson caught him for his first five starts.
Leon, playing in his 10th MLB season, is well regarded for his defense and game calling. He was integral in helping many of the Marlins’ younger starters — catching a majority of Trevor Rogers, Cody Poteet, Braxton Garrett and Zach Thompson’s starts before the All-Star Break. Luzardo was no different on Sunday.
“I feel like it went really well just based off a chemistry point of view of it,” Luzardo said. “I just had a lot of faith in him. He’s been around a long time and he knows what he’s doing. He’s caught a lot of great pitchers. Anything he put down, I just had trust in it.”
Added Marlins manager Mattingly: “That takes a lot of weight off young guys like Jesus, Edward [Cabrera], guys like that. We have young starters. It takes a while for them to understand, most of them, where they should be going, why, game planning and all that so the catcher takes a lot of pressure off of those young starters.”
Luzardo, a 23-year-old lefty who graduated from Parkland’s Stoneman Douglas High and was acquired by the Marlins from the Oakland Athletics in the Starling Marte trade on July 28, gave up a leadoff double to Jonathan India and walked Tyler Stephenson before retiring 18 of the final 20 batters he faced.
The only other two to reach: Tyler Naquin on a Jazz Chisholm Jr. fielding error in the second and Joey Votto on a hit by pitch to lead off the seventh and end Luzardo’s night. The announced crowd of 11,019 gave Luzardo a standing ovation as he made his way to the dugout.
Luzardo threw 94 pitches, 56 of which went for strikes. He relied primarily on his changeup and curveball, which accounted for 56 of his pitches thrown, all 15 swings and misses he induced and seven of the eight strikeouts.
“He just slowed the game down a little bit,” Mattingly said. “I think one of the things with him that we’ve been — and I shouldn’t say ‘we’ve been’ because it’s mostly [pitching coach] Mel [Stottlemyre Jr.] bur I listen and watch his bullpens — is to get him to slow down, be small with where he wants to throw the ball, know exactly where he wants to throw it and not just being happy throwing the ball over the plate and slowing stuff down. ... We want him to be able to, as he worked in his pens, to take pitches and evaluate. Did that ball go where you want it? If it didn’t, why, and what’s your correction? That’s been going on like every pen.”
Luzardo got all the run support he needed from Jesus Sanchez, who belted out a two-run home run in the first inning. Sanchez also hit a first-inning home run in Saturday’s win over the Reds.
Anthony Bender threw two scoreless innings and got a pair of double plays before Dylan Floro earned his seventh save of the season by holding the Reds to one run in the ninth.
This story was originally published August 29, 2021 at 3:46 PM.
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