Jesus Luzardo Facing Pressure To Help Phillies Against Cubs

One reason is that runs are going to be hard to come by. Philadelphia has been abysmal when facing off against left-handed pitching this season, and they are set to face Shota Imanaga, who diced them up not even a week ago.

When the Phillies and Cubs faced off at Citizens Bank Park on April 15, Imanaga surrendered a leadoff home run to Trea Turner and then shut down Philadelphia. That was the only run he allowed through six innings of work with 11 strikeouts.

Luzardo got roughed up by Chicago in that same game, which was an 11-2 loss. He was charged with eight earned runs, nine total, in 5.1 innings of work. That sent his ERA skyrocketing to a brutal 7.94.

However, there is actually a lot to like about how Luzardo has been throwing the ball this year. Outside of his bloated ERA, everything else looks excellent, including almost all of his peripheral and advanced stats.

He is generating strikeouts at an impressive clip with 30 across 22.2 innings. Walks are being limited, and opposing batters aren’t generating a ton of hard contact against Luzardo.

His SEIRA is an elite 2.45, which is third amongst qualified pitchers, behind only Cam Schlittler of the New York Yankees and Imanaga. His strikeout-to-walk ratio indicates that better results are on the horizon.

Some bad luck is certainly doing in Luzardo. His batting average on balls in play is an unsustainable .417, and his left-on-base percentage of 41.7% is also well below his career norms. Those should regress to the mean and help get his ERA back in an acceptable range.

The Phillies would love to see that turnaround start against Chicago. Luzardo is a big part of the team’s game plan for success, and the pressure is on for the results to start matching the production.