Jesus Luzardo doesn’t get through three innings as Marlins lose again to Diamondbacks
%20(1).JPG "Miami Marlins pitcher Jesus Luzardo throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first inning during a baseball game, Tuesday, May 10, 2022, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)")
By the time Jesus Luzardo got settled in on Tuesday, he was already behind and on his way to a short start.
The 24-year-old lefty labored through 2 2/3 innings as the Miami Marlins lost 9-3 to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
It was Luzardo’s shortest start of his tenure with the Marlins (13-17), who have now lost nine of their past 10 games (including all five games they have played against the Diamondbacks in that stretch) after rattling off a seven-game win streak.
Luzardo’s struggles began right from the start. He allowed each of the first four batters he faced to reach base, with Cooper Hummel drawing a five-pitch walk, Jordan Luplow hammering a middle-middle fastball for a two-run home run, Ketel Marte drawing a full-count walk and Christian Walker hitting a double on a full-count.
Luzardo didn’t record his first out until his 28th pitch and needed 40 pitches total to get out of the first inning.
“I didn’t get going,” Luzardo said, “until four batters too late. Started off slow. Command was out of whack. That’s really what it was. I feel like my command was just not there. And then, once it was, it was kind of too late.”
He threw a strong second inning, retiring the Diamondbacks (17-14) in order on 12 pitches, before allowing back-to-back one-out walks in the third and being pulled following a Josh Rojas lineout on Pitch 78.
“For us, it looked like he’s out of gas at that point,” manager Don Mattingly said. “Just threw a lot of bullets and we knew he wasn’t going to go through four and wasn’t going to get to five. We were trying to get out of the inning right there.”
Louis Head, who entered in relief of Luzardo, allowed both inherited runners to score on consecutive singles from Nick Ahmed and Geraldo Perdomo and then gave up two more runs on an Alek Thomas double and a wild pitch to put Miami in a 6-2 hole.
Arizona added three runs in the eighth against Dylan Floro, who was making his first appearance of the season with the Marlins after starting the season on the injured list with right rotator cuff tendinitis.
It all came after the Marlins took an early 2-0 lead on a Jorge Soler home run to left field against Madison Bumgarner, his team-high-tying fifth of the season and second of this road trip. Miami’s offense was shut out for the next seven innings before Jacob Stallings’ two-out RBI single in the ninth scored Joey Wendle to cut Miami’s deficit to six.
Bumgarner held the Marlins to two hits and one walk over his final 5 1/3 innings after allowing four hits in the first.
“It seemed like after they got the four [runs in the third], we just kind of fell flat,” Mattingly said. “After that, there wasn’t a whole lot going on.”
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 12:58 AM.
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