Most major league pitchers have one stellar, above average pitch. But Oakland Athletics fans and the baseball world were in for a treat on Tuesday night with the showing of a pitcher who has multiple highly effective pitches. That pitcher was Jesus Luzardo, who made his first major league start for the A’s.
The 22-year old lefty lived up to his hype as he was nearly flawless allowing just two hits while striking out five through five innings against the Texas Rangers. He immediately jumped out of the gate fooling hitters with a spectrum of speeds on his fastball between 94-98 MPH.
His fastball was not the only pitch he had at his disposal. He effectively used three other pitches in his repertoire to get hitters out including his changeup, sinker, and highly touted slider.
“My slider wasn’t necessarily there,” Luzardo said according to MLB.com. “I wasn’t able to throw it for a strike that much.”
Luckily, he was able to resort to his other pitches as he effectively got batters whiffing on both his well-located fastball and wicked off-speed changeup.
His pitches were the works of a superstar which is especially impressive considering he is the youngest A’s pitcher to start since Brett Anderson in 2010. Despite joining the roster late due to testing positive for Covid-19 and the delayed start of the season, Luzardo looked unbothered. He looked as though he was a veteran going out for a routine outing.
“If there were nerves, he didn’t show it,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin to MLB.com. “A lot of times the nerves will show up in the first inning, and it was anything but. He was throwing bullets. He’s special in that he has a lot of confidence at a young age.”
Confidence is the word that can be used next to dominance and speed when describing Luzardo’s debut and overall pitching. In his first two major league seasons, including all the times he has come out of the bullpen, he has not been afraid to attack hitters with pitches in the zone. Last season he had hitters swinging and missing at pitches in the zone 58.1% of the time. That number has risen to 69.6% so far this season. Can anyone touch this guy’s pitches?
Unfortunately, Luzardo took the no-decision as the A’s were unable to generate any run support through the first six innings against veteran Lance Lynn who was also highly effective through six for the Rangers. The A’s prevailed however, as the spotlight was stolen from Luzardo on a walk off grand slam by Stephen Piscotty in the bottom of the ninth. This gave the A’s their fourth win in a row with a 5-1 victory.
While it is always too early to tell how a pitcher’s career is going to be based on a single start, the fact that Luzardo’s stuff is already bringing talks of comparison to the likes hall of famer Pedro Martinez and the fact that Luzardo was already able to make various veteran batters swing and miss at his pitches like fools means that Luzardo has potential to be one of baseball’s most indomitable forces against hitters for years to come.
