Jesus Luzardo Legitimizes All-Star Candidacy Dominating Reds

The talented lefty was virtually unhittable all evening. He allowed only two hits and issued two walks across his seven shutout innings, with the only other base runner being when he hit Spencer Steer with a pitch.

Noelvi Marte, who drew a walk with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, was the only player to get beyond first base with Luzardo on the mound. He moved to second after Edwin Arroyo grounded out to second baseman Bryson Stotto and to third when TJ Friedl followed up with a single.

Marte didn’t come around to score, as Luzardo got Elly De La Cruz to ground into a force out to shortstop Trea Turner.

The most impressive part about Luzardo’s outing was how efficient he was. He racked up 11 strikeouts and needed only 96 pitches to get through his seven shutout innings. 62 of those pitches were for strikes.

This is the fourth time this season that he has struck out double-digit batters in a single game, giving him 136 on the season in 110.1 innings pitched. His ERA is down to 3.51, a truly impressive feat when taking into consideration that his ERA was at 5.07 after nine starts, but has steadily been on the decline since.

Luzardo was worthy of the All-Star nod that he received, joining Cristopher Sanchez and Jhoan Duran as Phillies pitchers on the NL All-Star Team staff.

Curiously missing is Zack Wheeler, who was also worthy of being selected and is the biggest snub on either team this year. He and his agent have both voiced their displeasure at his absence, as he is criminally underrated compared to his peers.