May 8, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo (44) reacts after allowing a walk against the Colorado Rockies in the fourth inning at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images
PHILADELPHIA -- J.T. Realmuto hadn't laid down a sacrifice bunt since 2015.
So, it's no surprise that Don Mattingly wouldn't ask him to do it in extra innings in a May game against the Colorado Rockies.
The scenario: The Phillies had rallied from a six-run deficit to tie the game. In the top of the 10th, they forced the Rockies to strand their ghost runner on base, meaning the Phillies only needed one run to win in the bottom of the 10th. With Adolis Garcia the ghost runner, the Rockies intentionally waked the scorching hot Brandon Marsh to set up a force. That brought Realmuto to the plate.
The situation screamed sacrifice bunt. Get the winning run to third base with less than two outs. But Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly was in a decision pickle.
"Obviously, you want to move the runner," he said. "For me, it's hard to ask a guy to do something he doesn't really do. I think the bigger question is if it's something that we want to continue to work towards. Maybe it's something that in a game like that you would want to be able to do it. But it's hard for me to put a guy in a position to try to do something that he doesn't really do."
“It’s hard to me to ask a guy to do something he doesn’t normally really do”
Don Mattingly on why JT didn’t bunt.
(@MattWatsonMedia) pic.twitter.com/qF8MZFb3d5
Ahh, baseball and it's unwritten rules.
Never mind the fact that the Phillies are currently carrying three catchers, and one of them, Garrett Stubbs, is an excellent bunter. Because even though both backup catchers were available, Mattingly would rather take his chances with Realmuto to be able to advance the runner in another way - mostly because he can drive the ball to right field, and a fly ball to right would also get Garcia to third.
Realmuto did fly out to right, but it was way too shallow for Garcia to advance.
The Phillies didn't score. The Rockies got two in the 11th off of leaky reliever Brad Keller and the Phillies also left the tying runs on base in the bottom half, and they dropped a 9-7 decision to a team they should be beating easily.
Of course, they'd never have been in the position for Mattingly to make a managerial decision on bunting in extra innings had Jesus Luzardo looked anything like his two previous outings.
Instead, he was way off -- again.
For the fourth time in eight starts this season, Luzardo had an inning go sideways on him leading to an ugly pitching line.
In this one, it was a five-run fourth inning where seven consecutive batters reached base against him. That was the worst of the four.
Friday's fourth inning was more akin to back-to-back starts Luzardo made last season in late May and early June against Milwaukee and Toronto where he allowed 20 runs on 21 hits in a combined 5 2/3 innings.
Although his start earlier this season against Arizona imploded just as quickly, when he had a no-hitter through four innings only to have his fifth inning go single, walk, single, strikeout, single, single, strikeout, double, shower. He allowed five runs in that inning as well.
On Friday, it was the fourth inning. TJ Rumfield led off with a single to right field before Hunter Goodman hit the biggest of his four hits in the game -- a two-run blast down the left field line.
Hunter makes a deposit at the Bank! pic.twitter.com/5ub4l4WTnU
Luzardo was not happy with that outcome and promptly walked the next hitter, Brenton Doyle. The batter after that, Willi Castro, beat out a bunt base hit, and Luzardo was visibly perturbed. You could see the snowball running downhill.
Kyle Karros doubled. Ezequial Tovar singled and stole a base. Brett Sullivan walked.
Mattingly had seen enough.
"Obviously I'd like to right the ship ASAP," Luzardo said. "It's just frustrating at times. You feel like you make some good pitches and the hits today were on some really good pitches that they put some good swings on. But obviously the results have to be there. So, that's what we're chasing. I just got to be better."
Asked if there were any commonalities in the starts where he seems to be cruising before he gives up a monster inning, Luzardo was curt with his response.
"Nothing that sticks out," he said.
The Phillies need to find something in them, then. Because the Jekyll and Hyde nature of his outings can't continue. He looks like a Cy Young candidate in half of his starts and gets smacked around the yard in the other half.
There was one silver lining in the game, though. The Phillies overcame a 6-0 deficit and used a five-run rally of their own in the bottom of the eighth to tie the score. That rally was capped off by Justin Crawford's first Big League homer.
"It was really special," Crawford said. "I wish we would have won, but definitely it was a feeling in the moment that I will remember forever."
