The Philadelphia Phillies entered the weekend hitting .220 as a team, but their offense got healthy in the opener of a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies on Friday in Denver.
Philadelphia put up seven runs in the first inning and cruised to a 10-1 win and will go for the series win when the teams play Saturday night. The Phillies will send left-hander Jesus Luzardo (0-1, 9.00 ERA) to the mound; Colorado had not announced a starter as of Saturday morning.
Luzardo struggled at times in his first start of the season against Texas on Sunday, allowing six runs in six innings of an 8-3 loss, but Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he saw some good things in Luzardo’s outing.
“I thought the stuff was really good, the velocity was there, got a lot of swing-and-miss,” Thomson said. “First two innings he was lights out, last two innings he was really good. Just a couple of bad pitches.”
Luzardo could cruise to his first win of the season if Philadelphia replicates its offensive outburst from the series opener. The Phillies jumped on Colorado starter Michael Lorenzen, took the big lead, and never were threatened.
Philadelphia entered the weekend having scored 23 runs in the first six games and hit only seven homers. The Phillies went deep three times Friday, including Kyle Schwarber’s 460-foot blast to the second deck in the fifth inning.
Brandon Marsh had one of the homers, his first of the season, and is one of the few Philadelphia players with a .300 average or better. He is hitting .320 while Justin Crawford is at .333 and Adolis Garcia is batting .308.
Colorado was trying to build off taking two of three games in Toronto this week, but Lorenzen struggled in his second start for the Rockies. Valente Bellozo followed with six innings of relief, striking out seven and giving up one hit — the solo blast by Schwarber — and the long outing gives manager Warren Schaeffer options heading into the rest of the series.
“It’s beyond words how important that was,” Schaeffer said after the loss. “Bellozo saved our bullpen today in a big, big, big way. Bellozo, for sure, the hero of the game for us.”
Schaeffer seemed unconcerned about his team having any carry-over from the lopsided loss.
“It’s one bad inning, one game out of 162,” he said. “Don’t worry about it; it’s going to get better.”
Schaeffer had slotted Jose Quintana to start the second game of the series, but the lefty went on the injured list with a hamstring strain. With Quintana on the shelf, right-hander Chase Dollander probably will get a bulk of the innings, and most likely out of the bullpen.
Dollander (1-0, 9.00) got Colorado’s first win of the season in the 14-5 victory at Toronto on Monday night. He allowed four runs — three home runs — in four innings of relief but was the beneficiary of the Rockies’ offensive outburst.
Dollander, Colorado’s first-round draft pick in 2023, struggled in 2025, his first season in the majors. He won his debut on April 6 but finished 2-12 with a 6.52 ERA in 21 starts. He struggled to keep the ball in the park, giving up 18 home runs in 98 innings.
He did not face the Phillies in his rookie season. The veteran Lorenzen, however, has made 14 career appearances (four starts) against Colorado, going 2-2 with a 4.31 ERA.
–Field Level Media
