Phillies snatch another win off the Rockies behind a solid outing from pitcher Jesús Luzardo

DENVER — Coors Field might be known as a hitter’s paradise, but that was not the case on Saturday when Jesús Luzardo was on the mound.

The Phillies’ left-hander overcame the higher altitude and the large outfield susceptible to extra-base hits to shut down the Rockies’ offense for 6 ⅔ innings. Luzardo limited Colorado to one run on five hits — all singles — and struck out 11 in the Phillies’ 2-1 win.

The thinner air in Denver can make pitches, especially breaking balls, move less than normal. And sure enough, Luzardo’s trademark sweeper averaged just seven inches of horizontal break on Saturday. In his first start of the season at Citizens Bank Park, the pitch had 12 inches of break.

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But even so, Luzardo’s command was pinpoint enough to get 10 of his 23 total whiffs and four of his 11 total strikeouts with the pitch. He did not walk a batter.

“Just setting it up properly,” Luzardo said of overcoming the reduced sweeper movement. “J.T. [Realmuto] did a great job back there, reading swings. And we had a good game plan going in, understanding which guys maybe to attack differently and maybe set up that sweeper a little bit better. I think getting into better spots in general is really the biggest part.”

It was a worthy follow-up performance to Friday’s start from Aaron Nola, who held the Rockies to a single run over 6 ⅓ innings. But Luzardo had much less run support to work with.

“It’s huge,” Trea Turner said. “It’s not easy to do, and I don’t think anyone in here takes it for granted to go out there and kind of save your bullpen for two days and keep the runs down.”

In the first inning, Kyle Schwarber’s bat split in half making contact with a cutter from Rockies opener Brennan Bernardino. A piece of his bat wound up in shallow right field, while the ball dropped just inside the left field line for a double. Trea Turner, who had drawn a leadoff walk and was stealing on the pitch, scored from first base for a 1-0 lead.

“As soon as I saw the umpire say fair, I knew there was a chance,” Turner said.

The Rockies tied things up in the third inning. Luzardo allowed a leadoff single to Troy Johnston, who advanced to second after a wild pitch got by Realmuto. Johnston then advanced to third on a sacrifice fly, and scored on another single. Luzardo stranded the runner with a groundout and strikeout.

Turner drove in the winning run in the fifth inning, punching a line drive into left field for a double that scored Brandon Marsh from third.

The Phillies also made some strong defensive plays. In the first inning, Alec Bohm made a backhand grab at third base and threw out the lead runner at second base. In the sixth inning, Turner slid to snag a ground ball hit up the middle, spun, and fired to first base in time. Adolis García covered a lot of ground to catch a shallow fly ball in right field in the seventh, making a basket catch on the run.

With two outs in the sixth and a 3-1 count on Hunter Goodman, Luzardo initiated an automated ball-strike challenge on a sweeper that would have been the fourth ball. The call was overturned, extending the at-bat. Goodman fouled off another sweeper and then struck out on a changeup to end the inning.

“Saved the walk and turned it into a strikeout,” Luzardo said. “So it ended up working out, but I was definitely nervous when I did it.”

While most teams prefer to leave ABS challenges to catchers as they have a better vantage point of the plate, the Phillies do not have a blanket restriction against pitchers challenging at this point.

“I was messing around with [Bryson] Stott, because he was telling me that I was gonna mess it up and I was gonna blow it for the pitchers the rest of the year,” Luzardo said with a smile. “So I probably won’t do it again, but I was pretty certain of that one.”

The successful challenge likely helped save Luzardo’s pitch count, and the Phillies pushed him into the next inning. Manager Rob Thomson lifted him with two outs in the seventh when he reached 99 pitches, leaving a runner on second base for José Alvarado. The lefty reliever walked the first batter he faced on five pitches and then took Kyle Karros to a full count. Karros chased on a cutter inside to strike out and preserve the Phillies’ slim lead.

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Brad Keller pitched the eighth and stranded the tying run at third base. A leadoff single got past Trea Turner into center field, and pinch-running Jake McCarthy advanced to second on a wild pitch and third on a groundout. Hunter Goodman flew out to right field to end the inning.

With former Phillies closer and Colorado native Brad Lidge watching in the stands, Jhoan Duran earned his third save of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth.

“That’s really the story today,” Thomson said, “is the pitching.”