Jesus Luzardo will look to continue his hot streak and help the Philadelphia Phillies even their series against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.
The National League East rivals opened a four-game set Monday night after a 92-minute rain delay, with Washington prevailing 4-1 behind a strong start from Foster Griffin (8-2).
The Phillies will start the left-handed Luzardo (6-4, 4.20 ERA) against right-hander Zack Littell (6-6, 5.45) on Tuesday.
Luzardo is 3-1 with a 2.57 ERA over his past seven starts, with 40 strikeouts and 15 walks in 42 innings. The Phillies are 6-1 in those games.
Last time out, Luzardo gave up two runs on five hits in seven innings of an 8-2 win against the Miami Marlins last Tuesday. He did not allow a hit over the first four innings.
“After the first (inning), I feel like I really found a groove getting back in the zone,” said Luzardo, who walked the game’s first batter. “Kind of lost it at the beginning and then made some adjustments and I felt way better.”
Luzardo is 2-4 with a 4.98 ERA in nine career appearances (all starts) vs. Washington.
After a strong run in which he won five straight starts while allowing two earned runs or fewer each time, Littell has struggled in his last two outings, giving up nine earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. Last Wednesday, he allowed four runs on seven hits — including four solo homers — in five innings of a 6-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals.
“You have days like this, you kind of have to just buckle down and say we’re just gonna compete,” Littell said. “Frankly, I’ve been kind of due for one.”
Littell has allowed 20 home runs this season for Washington, which received 7 1/3 strong innings (one run, four hits) from Griffin and offense from throughout the lineup in Monday’s win.
Curtis Mead hit a two-run homer and Luis Garcia added a solo shot. James Wood, Dylan Crews and Keibert Ruiz each contributed a double and a single for the Nationals, who have won six of their past nine games.
“The belief’s always been high,” Mead said. “It doesn’t matter who we play — we just play our own game and hopefully we come out on top.”
Washington’s Nasim Nunez extended his hitting streak to eight games with a pair of singles, but CJ Abrams saw his home-run streak end at three games.
Brandon Marsh homered for the Phillies.
With one hit in four games before his seventh-inning at-bat, Marsh got a pep talk from Bryce Harper in the dugout and proceeded to deposit an 0-1 pitch into the Nationals’ bullpen.
“That’s just him being the leader that he is,” Marsh said of Harper. “He could see that I may have been overthinking a little bit out there, so he just came and put his hands on me and said, ‘Stop thinking so much and go be you.’ Got me out of my own head and got me back on track a little bit.”
Harper had two singles and is batting .526 (10-for-19) in his last five games.
–Field Level Media
