PHILADELPHIA -- When Jesús Luzardo is on, he's really on.
And sometimes when he's not, he's not.
It was the latter version of Luzardo who showed up for the first inning on Thursday night against the Mets. Fortunately for the Phillies, perhaps the best version of Luzardo they've seen all year took over from there.
The left-hander rebounded from a four-run opening frame by retiring the final 22 batters he faced to set the stage for Philadelphia's 6-4 comeback victory at Citizens Bank Park. The win secured a four-game sweep for the Phillies (87-60), who moved a season-high 11 games ahead of the Mets (76-71) atop the National League East with 15 games to play.
The Phillies’ magic number to clinch the NL East is down to five.
"For me, it was more of keeping us in the game and giving us a chance to win and go for the sweep,” Luzardo said, "which is obviously something we wanted. As we wind down the season, every win counts.”
Early on, it looked as if Luzardo could be in for one of his off-nights. He gave up hits to five of the first six batters he faced, putting the Phillies in a 4-0 hole before they even came to the plate.
Instead of unraveling, Luzardo locked in. He did not allow another baserunner on his way to completing eight innings. He struck out nine of those final 22 hitters to record his sixth 10-K outing of the season -- tied with teammate Zack Wheeler and the Giants’ Logan Webb for the most in the NL.
In the process, Luzardo became the first Phillies pitcher to give up four runs in the first inning and still complete eight innings since Hall of Famer Steve Carlton on Sept. 29, 1977. But Carlton still took the loss in that one.
The last Phillie to do that in a winning effort was another Hall of Famer: Robin Roberts on Aug. 25, 1955. Roberts did so despite giving up nine runs in an 11-9 victory over the Cardinals.
Luzardo, though, was perfect after the first. Asked if he’d ever thrown seven straight perfect innings before, he replied, "Never.”
Then, he reconsidered.
"Well, maybe in high school,” Luzardo said. “But that definitely wasn't after giving up four runs in the first. So that was a good one.”
Luzardo's dominance gave the Phillies plenty of time to chip away -- and chip away they did. Otto Kemp hit a two-run homer in the fourth and Bryce Harper pulled them within a run with an RBI double in the fifth.
Philadelphia then took control with a three-run sixth that included a game-tying RBI double by Kemp, a go-ahead RBI single by Harrison Bader and another RBI single by Harper.
"A lot of credit to ‘Zeus,” Bader said. “He just did an incredible job of keeping the offense in the game. I’m pretty sure he was perfect after the first inning, which is just incredible in and of itself.”
Bader may have realized it -- but not Luzardo.
“No, I found out after,” Luzardo said when asked if he realized in the moment that he hadn’t allowed a baserunner since the first. “I knew it'd been a while, but I wasn't sure. By the eighth, the first was kind of like a blur.”
To be fair, Luzardo’s focus was elsewhere as he walked off to the mound to a standing ovation after the top of the eighth.
“I didn't really soak it in because I was trying to get one more inning out of Topper,” Luzardo said.
Manager Rob Thomson’s response?
“He told me, 'No way,'” Luzardo said with a smile. “He shot it down pretty quick.”
By that point, Luzardo had given the Phillies more than enough on 97 pitches. Plus, Thomson had Jhoan Duran waiting to slam the door -- and that’s exactly what Duran did, striking out the side on just 11 pitches in the ninth inning.
By retiring the final 25 Mets batters, it marked just the second game in the last 50 years in which the Phillies did not allow a baserunner after the first inning. The other, obviously, was Roy Halladay’s perfect game on May 29, 2010.
“The whole game, really, was probably as impressive a win as we've had all year,” Thomson said. “ ... [Luzardo] just settled right in and gave us eight strong innings. It's really unbelievable. And the offense kept coming, they just didn't quit.”