Luzardo allows a month's worth of runs, Hoskins goes off, Phils drop 3rd straight

Luzardo allows a month's worth of runs, Hoskins goes off, Phils drop 3rd straight originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Jesus Luzardo’s 12th start as a Phillie wasn’t just his first dud, it was the worst outing of his career, a 17-7 loss to the Brewers that had Rhys Hoskins’ fingerprints all over it.

Luzardo entered the day with the lowest home run rate in the National League and had not allowed more than three runs as a Phillie. Four batters into the game, the Brewers changed that with two singles and a walk before Hoskins extended his arms to blast a 97 mph fastball over the wall for a three-run bomb.

The fourth inning was the Phillies’ ugliest of 2025 and included the first ejection of the season for manager Rob Thomson. It began with a ball bouncing out of Nick Castellanos’ glove in right-center for a leadoff double. It might have been centerfielder Brandon Marsh’s ball but Marsh pulled off it late, perhaps because Castellanos was charging toward it and called it.

The next batter, Caleb Durbin, hit a dribbler to the right of the mound and Luzardo threw it low past first baseman Alec Bohm, an error that allowed a runner to come around to score. Then came back-to-back walks, consecutive singles and another three-run homer from Hoskins, whose six RBI matched his most in any game.

Luzardo allowed a career-high 12 runs on 12 hits and his ERA rose from 2.15 to 3.58 — from second-best in the majors to 23rd. No Phillies starter has given up more runs in a game since Al Jurisich in 1947.

The Phils have lost three in a row and dropped the series to the Brewers after ripping off 11 wins in 12 games. Their only other series loss since April 25 was in mid-May to the Cardinals.

Thomson’s ejection came after Luzardo appeared to pick Sal Frelick off of first base in the fourth. Following the initial call, third-base umpire Derek Thomas motioned that Luzardo balked and Frelick was awarded second base. Thomson ran out to argue, and beyond the balk itself, he may have taken issue with it being called by the third-base umpire, not the home-plate or first-base umpires who have better vantage points of a lefty’s pick-off move.

Regression was going to hit Luzardo at some point. He began the day averaging more than 6.0 innings per start, by far a career-high. His most 100-pitch outings in any season is five and he’d done that in five of his last six starts entering the weekend. The Phillies have pushed him, and until Saturday, he’d passed every test.

They know they must strike a balance rest-of-season between riding Luzardo when he’s effective and preserving his arm for October when it matters most. There are ways to do it — dialing him back by an inning, skipping a start at some point, going to a six-man rotation when Andrew Painter is ready.

The Phillies turn to Ranger Suarez on Sunday looking to avoid being swept at home for the first time since last July 29-31 vs. the Yankees. He’s pitched four straight gems, three of them scoreless starts of at least six innings. They’ll need another.