Jesús Luzardo delivers best Phillies starting pitching performance of the year in first game under Don Mattingly

PHILADELPHIA — Don Mattingly kept it simple in his first press availability as Phillies manager.

“We need to play better baseball,” Mattingly said pregame on Tuesday. “It’s as simple as that.” He repeated the phrase “better baseball” in his interview four more times.

“I know you guys want all kinds of different answers and solutions, but it’s play better baseball,” Mattingly said.

“Better baseball” starts with better starting pitching and in the first game of the Mattingly era, Jesús Luzardo, who once played under Mattingly in Miami, gave the Phillies the best outing from a starting pitcher the Phillies have seen all year.

Luzardo became the first Phillies starter to throw seven innings in a game this season. Through 28 games last season, the Phillies had six starts of seven innings or more, two of them from Luzardo. The 7-0 Phillies win over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night also marked the first shutout win of the season for Philadelphia.

Zack Wheeler informed Luzardo of his seven-inning feat postgame.

“We gotta pick it up,” Wheeler told Luzardo.

The Phillies have just 10 wins through 29 games. The blame is shared. The offense has not won a game against a left-handed starting pitcher. They do not have a cleanup hitter. Two key players, catcher J.T. Realmuto and closer Jhoan Duran, are on the injured list. The games have not been crisp. They have been blown out in nearly a third of their games.

Add the starting rotation to the list of problems. The Phillies rotation entered the game with a 5.80 ERA, the worst in baseball. This is uncharted territory for a unit that has dominated the sport over the last five seasons and counting. Elite starting pitching has covered up flaws in other areas of the roster.

Without it, the operation collapses, as evidenced by the first month of this Phillies season. Better starting pitching will lead to more comfortable wins.

Consider Luzardo’s outing an encouraging beginning. The left-hander struck out eight over seven shutout innings and was efficient. He entered his final inning of work with just 76 pitches on his ledger.

“Filling up the strike zone, getting ahead, being able to climb back into counts with offspeed pitches as well,” Luzardo said. “Tonight was better than the last start in terms of getting ahead and making sure we’re staying ahead.”

The Phillies will send Cristopher Sánchez to the mound on Wednesday as the club looks to clinch their first series win since the Rockies series in Colorado in early April. Another good start and momentum can finally shift for a desperate team in need of a long winning streak.

“You feel this coming, right?” Mattingly said. “I’ve been around long enough to feel the game, the last game in Chicago. The fight. The games it Atlanta, we had a chance to win 2 out of 3 there. Even the Sale game. We got down 6-0, Nola kept it right there. Our at-bats were competitive. We didn’t give in and start swinging. So, this has been coming. … I feel like I’ve been around long enough to see that when you know you have this type of talent, it’s there and it’s coming. You can feel this coming.”