It didn\u2019t take Philadelphia long to fall for Luis Arraez.<\/p>\n
Three pitches. Tops.<\/p>\n
Playing in his first game with his new club, Arraez led the Phillies to a 5-0 win over the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday night. Lefty Jesus Luzardo pitched eight shutout innings.<\/p>\n
Acquired from the San Francisco Giants at Monday\u2019s trade deadline, Arraez drove home the Phillies\u2019 first run of the night with a first-inning RBI single to center on the third pitch he saw.<\/p>\n
He drove home the team\u2019s second run of the night with an RBI double to right, capping an eight-pitch at-bat in the third inning.<\/p>\n
Arraez is a three-time batting champion and leads the National League with a .325 batting average this season. He is not a power hitter. Manager Don Mattingly wrestled with the construction of his lineup, finally deciding to go against the book and hit Arraez cleanup.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou figure he\u2019s coming up with men on base and it doesn\u2019t take a homer to drive in a run,” Mattingly said before the game. “A base hit drives in a run from second base.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mattingly’s reasoning proved to be prescient.<\/p>\n
In both of his first two at-bats, Arraez came to the plate with runners on first and second. Both times, he delivered.<\/p>\n
And the crowd of 38,731 loved it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was excited,\u201d Arraez said. \u201cI was happy, especially when the fans gave me that ovation. That was beautiful. I was happy and thankful to the fans for giving me the energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m here — to enjoy the game and to try to do something special for the guys and the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fans also loved the way Luzardo pitched and the way the Phils\u2019 new defensive alignment performed.<\/p>\n
Luzardo pitched his best game of the season, blanking the Nats on four hits and two walks over his season-high eight innings. He struck out seven.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuzardo is nasty,\u201d said Arraez, who had a nice view of it all from second base.<\/p>\n
Bryce Harper, returning to right field for the first time since 2022, was tested on the first pitch of the game. He backpedaled and caught Dylan Crews\u2019 fly ball. Harper also caught three other\u00a0fly balls. No problem.<\/p>\n
Harper had some fun with the fans in the right field seats. He brought back his pre-game bow to the fans and they loved it.<\/p>\n
\u201cA guy told me he wanted a latte,\u201d America\u2019s favorite barista said. \u201cThat was pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryson Stott, playing third base for the first time since early 2022, handled a hot smash to end the top of the seventh.<\/p>\n
Maybe the strong defense was contagious. Shortstop Trea Turner, who has struggled at the position, made four plays. One was a nice diving play up the middle. One was on a hard-hit ball in the sixth. His throws to first base were crisp and delivered with discernible confidence.<\/p>\n
Turner, batting second behind Kyle Schwarber, also stroked three hits and scored two runs.<\/p>\n
Simply put, the Phils looked like a sharp, efficient ballclub in getting the job done. Arraez, known for his high batting average, his bat-to-ball skills and his energy, seemed to rub off on everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis energy is infectious,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cYou love guys that play like that. That\u2019s just his personality. Anywhere I\u2019ve seen him in the past, it looks the same. It\u2019s always energy and it\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luzardo sensed the energy in the ballpark from the time Arraez took the field at second base.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could notice it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt felt like a breath of fresh air.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLuis didn\u2019t waste any time,\u201d Harper said. \u201cThat\u2019s why he\u2019s here. He brings emotion and fire. We\u2019ve seen him from afar. It\u2019s exciting to have him on our side. It was a great day for the Phillies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arraez came to the Phillies along with reliever Caleb Kilian. The right-hander also made his Phillies\u2019 debut with a scoreless ninth inning to close the shutout.<\/p>\n
Luzardo has made 144 starts in his career. Never has he gone nine innings or pitched a shutout. He did a little politicking to stay in the game after the eighth inning, but with a thin starting pitching staff and lots of baseball remaining, Mattingly pulled the valuable left-hander at 98 pitches. Even Luzardo admitted it was the right move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not my call. I definitely wanted the complete game and shutout. I look forward to it one day, but today wasn\u2019t the day. I was shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phillies lost 10 of their first 13 games after the All-Star break, but appear to have righted themselves with four straight wins. They remain in control of one of the National League\u2019s three wild-card playoff spots as they send rookie Andrew Painter to the mound Wednesday night. Phillies management did not add a starting pitcher at the trade deadline and is rolling the dice that Painter can hold down the fifth starter\u2019s job that he lost in June. He returned from the minors last week and tossed six innings of two-run ball at Baltimore. The Phils will be looking for similar success Wednesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It didn\u2019t take Philadelphia long to fall for Luis Arraez. Three pitches. Tops. Playing in his first game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,11350],"class_list":["post-259526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-phillies-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}