Jesús Luzardo makes quick work of Braves in Labor Day masterpiece

Jesús Luzardo pounded his mitt, stared up to the sky in front of a near sell-out crowd standing out and cheering. It was 2:42 pm. He had just completed eight innings. One hour and 36 minutes from first pitch. Every time he takes the ball nowadays, you know it'll be short day for the bullpen, and any fans looking to get home in a timely manner. His latest start came on Labor Day, which meant a nearly sold out crowd on a beautiful afternoon against the Braves. No one needed to rush home on Monday. Luzardo helped get them to their residence early anyways. Complete coverage of the Fightin' Phils and their MLB rivals from NBC Sports Philadelphia. The Phillies beat Atlanta 1-0 in the season finale of the four-game weekend series, off the back of their left-hander, who has been the best pitcher in baseball since the end of July, and arguably since the second week of June. The Florida-born southpaw, who worked fast on the rubber all afternoon, was in a rhythm from the jump. He was getting ahead of the Braves' bats with his four-seam fastball, like none-other. 12 of the 14 hitters he started them with a heater was for a strike. He threw the pitch for a strike a 74 percent of the time, the fifth best-command clip of that delivery in a start of his career. And don't let that let you think that he was exclusively going to the signature sweeper when he was getting hitters in plus-pitchers counts. Against a righty-heavy Atlanta lineup, he racked up five strikeouts with the fastball, six with the sweeper and one with the sinker. It was his sixth ten-plus strikeout performance of season. Changing the eye levels of the hitters was key for Luzardo to keep one of the best lineups around the game guessing. That and keeping his pitch count down was what led to his eight scoreless inning, allowing just two hits. Six minutes after the top of the eighth, Kyle Schwarber stepped up. The Phillies offense had done little all day long, struggling to get runners aboard and to knock them in when they reached scoring position. That certainly didn't matter to the Philadelphia Facing Didier Fuentes, who had six straight scoreless outings coming in, he got fastball right down broadway and belted it into the right field seats to put the Phillies' ahead 1-0. Big swings in this series were really all it took to walk away victorious. And at 2:50, Luzardo was on his way back out to the mound with over 41,000 standing and cheering. He'd get Ha Seong Kim to fly out, but would drill Ronald Acuna Jr. with two strikes. Luzardo barred down against Drake Baldwin getting a strikeout looking, before he got Ozzie Albies to fly out. Before you could fully finish your meal or adult beverage at the ballpark, Jesus Luzardo was staring at the sky, speaking to the heavens in his first career complete game in his 150th career start.