TORONTO -- Leaning into his superstitiousness wasn’t enough to get Jesús Luzardo out of a funk.
Luzardo, whose rituals involve everything from his coffee order and eyewear to how he steps on the field, went back to the well this week by altering his hairstyle. After yielding 12 runs last time out, he converted his long, flowing hair into cornrows.
But two starts don’t erase nearly two months of productive outings. They do, however, put a serious dent in Luzardo's stat line (4.46 ERA, 5-2).
The left-hander, a trade acquisition in December, allowed three or fewer earned runs in each of his first 11 starts with the Phillies -- just the fourth player to do that with the franchise since 1912, per Elias Sports.
He allowed 16 earned runs with a 1.179 WHIP in those first 11 starts.
In his past two, Luzardo has allowed 20 earned runs with a 4.588 WHIP. He’s the first pitcher in MLB history to allow that many earned runs in fewer than six innings in a two-start span.
How does that happen to a guy cruising for so long? Luzardo is determined to figure it out but doesn’t have an answer yet.
“There’s something obvious that we’re missing,” Luzardo said. “The first 11 starts are lights out, and then the next two are 20 earned runs. There’s gotta be something that we can find and fix and make that change. It has to happen fast.”
Wednesday’s trouble started in the second inning, and it didn’t matter what Luzardo threw. He allowed four hits on four different pitch offerings (changeup, sinker, four-seamer and sweeper), and the Blue Jays plated four runs.
In the third, after freezing George Springer on a slider to open the frame, Luzardo allowed six straight baserunners before his day was done.
Toronto took plenty of first-pitch swings, three of which turned into run-producing hits, including a two-run homer from Bo Bichette.
“I feel like that’s been the game plan against me lately, a lot,” Luzardo said. “Just a lot of early swings. The frustrating thing is they also take some really good pitches early, so that’s why there’s gotta be something that I’m missing.”
Luzardo checked for pitch-tipping cues after his 12-run outing but didn’t notice anything. He intends to comb through the video from Wednesday’s start to check again. Pitch location and selection are other factors to dig into, he noted.
One potential culprit to eliminate is health. Both Luzardo and manager Rob Thomson reiterated that the southpaw feels fine. There’s nothing wrong with his velocity, either.
It’s never a good day for an abridged outing from a starter, but the timing is particularly tough right now for the Phillies. They’re missing two rotation cornerstones (Zack Wheeler, paternity list; Aaron Nola, 15-day injured list) and will roll with a bullpen game for Friday’s series opener in Pittsburgh.
On the bright side, Philadelphia got a clean inning of relief from Taijuan Walker, whom the team is committed to trying out in a short-relief role. He retired the Blue Jays in order in the fifth inning with a strikeout and a pair of flyouts.
After him was Seth Johnson, the team’s No. 12 prospect, who touched 98.7 mph with his fastball (up from a season average of 95.2 mph).
“I mean, he showed me something today with that velocity and the spin,” Thomson said. “The secondary pitches were good. He’s really improved.”
As the Phillies get set to piece together a bullpen game, Luzardo will try to make sense of another confounding start.
There’s a shock value to his past two starts, but it isn’t time to panic.
“Everyone’s got faith in him,” Kyle Schwarber said. “We’ve seen a really great version of him, and I’m expecting that’s gonna be [what we see] the next time out there.”