Jesús Luzardo has been one of the best pitchers in baseball the second half of this season. After being awarded NL Pitcher of the Month for August with a 3-0 record and 1.31 ERA, Luzardo began September with the first complete game shutout of his career. His step forward into becoming an elite starter has given the Phillies an enviable rotation as the postseason creeps closer.
In fact, that rotation gives them some options on how the team could opt to deploy it in the postseason. Nothing is clinched
yet, but it appears likely that the Phillies will be playing in the Wild Card series, with their most likely opponent being the Chicago Cubs. Earlier this week, Matt Gelb of the Athletic broke down the reasoning for using Luzardo out of the bullpen in Game 1 of that potential series. Below is an excerpt of Gelb’s reasoning:
If Luzardo were to sit in the bullpen for Game 1 and pitch on what would normally be his day for a side bullpen session, he could still start a potential Game 3. It’s asking a lot, but a three-game series calls for extreme tactics. In an ideal world, the Phillies could craft a plan in which their Game 1 starter records 17 or 18 outs with Luzardo and Jhoan Duran being asked to secure the final nine or 10 outs. -Matt Gelb in the Athletic
It’s an interesting proposition, as the Phillies’ struggles with building a bridge to Jhoan Duran have been evident this season. That’s even before taking into consideration the fact that their bullpen has been one of the major culprits in some of their early postseason exits in recent seasons.
The Phillies best chance to win a postseason series, especially a short Wild Card series, would be to use their bullpen outside of Duran as little as possible. Deploying Luzardo there gives them that ability to do just that. That would of course mean that Luzardo would not start Game 1 despite possibly being the hottest hand, but as Gelb notes, it would not preclude him from starting a potential Game 3 or Game 1 of the NLDS. Luzardo also has experience pitching out of the bullpen in the postseason, as he did it in last year’s NLDS against the Dodgers when he threw 1.2 innings in extras and was charged with one unearned run.
So, how would you use Jesús Luzardo in a potential Wild Card series?
