Meanwhile, Luzardo gave the Nationals hitters a one-way ticket to a land of confusion, leaving them swinging fruitlessly at air as he finished up his day with 11 K’s through 5 innings of work.
The Phillies then showed Irvin’s replacement, Colin Poche, the way we walk, with Castellanos and Stott both earning free passes to open the 6th. Marsh singled to load the bases and chase Poche, who left with too many men, too many people, making too many problems on the basepaths. His replacement, Lucas Sims, fared no better: he walked Rojas (and then there were 3... runs), then, facing Schwarber, hurled a pitch over the outstretched glove of the backstop to score Castellanos.
There are few things that a rattled pitcher would fear more than the baleful glare of Kyle Schwarber. A ravenous wolf. An angry grizzly bear. Perhaps a particularly unhappy death adder. Although any of those things, really, might have been less dreadful, given that Schwarber slammed the ball to right field for a 3-run round tripper and a score of 7-2. The fact that it just barely cleared the wall, bouncing off the top and back onto the field, probably added insult to the injury of Nationals fans having their Opening Day optimism ripped from their hearts by many too many runs allowed.
The Nationals tried to restore the spirits of their faithful with a Rosario homer off of José Ruiz. This was, rather oddly, met with an E-A-G-L-E-S chant from visiting Phillies fans. The Phillies players had a more appropriate response, with Castellanos and Stott walking (again), and Marsh scoring them with a 3-run moonshot of his own. The ebullience was temporarily halted by the discovery that Realmuto had been removed from the game after bruising his foot with a deflected ball, but was restored with assurances that it was merely precautionary.
The Phillies added another run in the 8th via a pair of bingles, a walk, and a productive force out. The Nationals added 2 of their own via a homer against Carlos Hernández, then another in the 9th with a walk, a defensive indifference, and a single. Nevertheless, the Phillies continue to enjoy a season so far unblemished by defeat.
The Phillies are 2-0. They’ll try for a season-opening sweep tomorrow, with first pitch at 1:35.
Each team in today’s showdown had a debut. The Nationals wore their new “Blueprint” City Connect uniforms for the first time. The Phillies had their new pitcher, Jesús Luzardo, making his first start with the club. Even if you love the new uniforms, you’d have to admit that the Phillies had the more impressive debut.
The game started off with an emotional whiplash entirely unbefitting a sleepy Saturday afternoon, as Kyle Schwarber smacked the first pitch he saw from Jake Irvin over the head of Dylan Crews in right, only to be beat out by a great throw as he tried to stretch his hit into a double. Alec Bohm went down 0-2 in the count, but managed to work a walk; always nice to see, and even more so for the plate discipline-starved Phillies fans. The inning wrapped up with no more noise.
The first pitch Luzardo threw as a Phillie was sent straight up the middle by CJ Abrams for a base hit. The next at-bat went far better, as Luzardo repeatedly hit the outside corner to send Crews down looking. Abrams stole second, with J.T. Realmuto’s throw bouncing past Edmundo Sosa. That could’ve been another free base, but Wood missed the opportunity, in part because he realized the ball was loose too late (Sosa cannily took a stance as if he still had the ball), and in part because he stumbled as he prepared to make a move. That oddity might’ve left both Realmuto and Crews feeling abashed, but both had potential further embarrassment spared when Luzardo immediately ended the inning with a K and a grounder.
Luzardo once again opened up an inning by allowing a baserunner: Amed Rosario singled to third to leadoff the Washington half of the 2nd, with Bohm grabbing the ball but being pulled too far off the bag to make the throw. For a moment it looked like Luzardo might recover as he did in the 1st. He put an invisible touch on the ball, making a helpless-looking Nathaniel Lowe swing at air for strike 3, but Keibert Ruiz knocked a changeup into the second deck to put the Washingtons up 2-0.
Max Kepler walked in the top of the 4th and advanced to 2nd on a Nick Castellanos ground out, bringing Bryson Stott to the plate with 2 outs and the new fella in scoring position. Stott lined one to right: it didn’t look like a homer off the bat, and it didn’t look like a homer as it arced towards the foul line. It didn’t look like a homer until, quite unexpectedly, it slipped over the fence, gently landing in the bullpen and tying the game up at 2. At that point, the floodgates appeared to open: Brandon Marsh slipped one through the infield for his 1st hit of the fledgling campaign, and Edmundo Sosa doubled by sending one over the head of James Wood in left. Schwarber struck out, though, and the flood didn’t quite come.
Jesus Luzardo made his Phillies debut, scoring a win over the Nationals in an 11 - 6 rout.
USA TODAY
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