Phillies, Luzardo Open Season with Series Win

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Hi, this is Zach Wheeler. Welcome to the Philly Show. Welcome to the Philly Show, brought to you by Citizens. From making a plan to reaching your goals, make sense of your money with Citizens, Official Bank of the Phillies, The Philly Show. Rubin tomorrow, Junior, Jim Salisbury, Todd z Olecki. It is Monday, March thirty first, twenty twenty five. Gentlemen. How are we to day before the home opener at Citzen Bank Park.

00:00:35
Speaker 2: Can't wait.

00:00:37
Speaker 3: It's always exciting day, exciting, exciting and it's nice to see for the fightings.

00:00:42
Speaker 4: You know, two and one decent, decent weekend, could have been better, but hey, pretty darn good.

00:00:50
Speaker 5: Not that you'll take a winning series all the time. You go through the sea. If you win every series, you win the world Series. That's the big one. So winning a series right out of the.

00:01:01
Speaker 1: Gate, absolutely, So yeah, we'll talk about that week the weekend in Washington in a minute. Christopher Sanchez starting the home opener today at Citizens Bank Park versus Herman Marquees from the Rockies. The first pitch is at three h five Eastern, so that is always fun. The home opener, as you said, is always great. But while we're talking about Citizens Bank Park, I do want to mention this. This is pretty exciting because Citizens and The Philly Show teaming up. We're going to have guys our first live show ever. Huh what Thursday at twelve fifteen pm Eastern at Citizen Bank Park, right next to pass and Stow. We're super excited about it. We're going to have a guest be about half hours, so stop by passing Soy at Citizens Bank Park for a live Philly show. I feel like, you know, live show. I mean, Ruben, you do a lot of live broadcasting. Yeah, you got nervous?

00:02:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, how are you gonna be nervous?

00:02:06
Speaker 1: I might be a little nervous. I don't know, you know, but I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. So we wanted to mention that that's very exciting. But what did we think of the weekend guys? You mentioned winning the series. It's it's very big. Of course, they had an opportunity to sweep Sunday, Aaron Nola kind of mislocated a couple of fastballs, and as it has happened in the past, a couple of home runs were hit and they lose five to one offense didn't help them out a lot. But overall, what'd you think of the weekend?

00:02:35
Speaker 5: Yeah, it would have been nice to come out with a sweep. I mean, what a kind of an exclamation point way to open the season if you get on there and take three. But you know, like I said, it's it's important to win series. So you know, Wheel are very good in the opener, Schwover swung it well all weekend. Boom, you know with that big hit in the opener. Nola, you know, when he makes mistakes over the plate, he just gets hurt. Because we had John Smoltz on a while back. I guess it was last summer, and it was I just remember him calling Aaron Nola sort of a modern day Greg Maddox, and Greg Maddox was just brilliant at you know, changing speeds, working the corners and getting guys to chase. But you know, pitch looks like a strike, but then it's off the plate. And when Aaron is good, he does that. But when he makes a mistake with that fastball over the plate or if he gets it up a lot of times, he's going to get hurt because you know, both home runs he gave up on Sunday were on fastballs that were like ninety two and change. Once upon a time that was a big fastball. It's not a big fastball anymore. You're not going to get it by people. These guys are geared to hit hit velocity. So if you make a mistake up, make a mistake over the plate with that fastball, you're gonna get hurt, and especially if you have runners on base.

00:04:05
Speaker 2: Ahead of those mistakes. That's what happened to him on Sunday.

00:04:09
Speaker 3: I thought it was a good weekend. I don't disagree with you on Nola. A lot of strikes. I really liked the way Wheeler threw the ball and they bounced back after punching out nineteen times in the early part of the game. And Mackenzie Gore was out standing on opening day. He was thrown in the shadows, no excuse, but I mean, it's real difficult to pick up the baseball. But Wheeler, you know, pitched really, really well. I was also really impressed by the way Lizardo through the baseball and for him to step forward the way he did in his debut.

00:04:44
Speaker 4: Really good stuff using a sweeper.

00:04:47
Speaker 3: Not a slider, A little bit of a different pitch, a little bit shaped, shaped a little bit differently, and used it very very well and very effectively. I think in general, they pitched pretty well. Romano struggled a little bit, Alvarado threw well.

00:05:06
Speaker 2: Kirk ran through the ball well.

00:05:08
Speaker 4: Some guys did you know, did a pretty good job. So all in all, I think it was a positive.

00:05:13
Speaker 3: I think the back part of the lineup, even though Trade Turner was not in, you know, in the lineup. A couple of times they get Mundo Sosa had a couple of really good days. He always comes through every time he gets opportunities. So some contributions from different guys and just overall, you know, pretty decent two out of three from a team that's not really going to be going anywhere, and it's a young team and it's still rebuilding with with a lot of problems when their bullpen.

00:05:41
Speaker 4: But they they did their job.

00:05:44
Speaker 3: They won two out of three, and uh, I think that's a positive going into uh into the game.

00:05:49
Speaker 4: To see me or this afternoon.

00:05:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's let's uh, it's Monday, and you know Monday, guys, what it is. It's best week by Manco Manco, Yeah baby, yeah, Mango and Manco the best of the Best, Best Week. It's where we pick our best Phillies performance Player of the week. Guys who wants to get the ball rolling today on Manco MANC the Best Week.

00:06:22
Speaker 5: I'll take the first slice of that pizza.

00:06:27
Speaker 2: Rube is not surprised. No, I'm gonna go Kyle Schwarber as my Mancos and Manco's best of the Week.

00:06:37
Speaker 5: You know, he hit under two hundred and spring training, strike out, struck out a bunch. He will strike out, obviously, and he had some strikeouts over the weekend, but he also.

00:06:45
Speaker 2: Had five hits and two bombs.

00:06:48
Speaker 5: I think he only had nine hits in spring training, so he comes out with five in the first three games, and it's like it's like riding a bike for Kyle Schwarber. Once the bright lights go on and the third deck goes on the stadium, he's ready to go and hit a big home run, hit a couple of big home runs for this team, and you know, looking good starting off an important season both for the team and for kyleege Schwarber is the Ans a free agent year and I expect them to produce in a big way like he has in his first three seasons in Philadelphia. We've said it before, it's been a great signing. It's been a great signing for the Phillies, a four year, seventy nine million dollar deal. He's entering the last year of that deal, and I expect a good one. And the first weekend was a good one.

00:07:37
Speaker 3: And the cool thing about that is that just a segue a little bit, is that he did it as a one hole hitter and a four hole hitter. It didn't affect him at all. He still did his thing, baby anyway, Go.

00:07:48
Speaker 2: Ahead, Todd. So what you're saying is hitting is hitting.

00:07:52
Speaker 5: Really doesn't matter a lot where you, uh, what position you're in when you step in that battest box, at least in terms of where the lineup stacks up, at least not for him.

00:08:01
Speaker 1: He almost had number three today too. He hit two balls foul that went like about three hundred four hundred feet down the right field line, and then the next one went in like the third deck down the right field line. He's like, I thought I was on it, but I guess it was just a tad early. I'm sure that's gotta be a sickening feeling, right you hit stroke two balls like that and that hard and just file. So yeah, kylesh Arf my MANCO best of the week, best week, I'm going with Alec Bohe. We talked about him, of course on Friday, but he had that huge clutch hit late in Thursday's win and on Opening Day and just everything they hated he had to deal with in the offseason, all the uncertainty, you know, he said he tried to block it out as much as possible, but then every time he went to his gym in Houston, everybody was telling him, are you going You're getting traded, You're getting traded, You're getting traded. Finds out he's not going to get traded, comes into camp with a great attitude and just kind of does what he does and delivered a really clutch hit to the roll to stroke to double the left field wall to help them win that game on Opening Day, so kind of bailed out Jorge Romano and helped the team to win. So it was nice to see Alec Boum do that on Opening Day. So that's my MANKO best of the week.

00:09:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, my best of the week, And I'll just go to my mainstay, and it could have been marsh It could have been in Mundo Sosa.

00:09:20
Speaker 4: I mentioned him earlier. Marsh had a nice couple of days. I'm gonna go with Zach Wheeler.

00:09:26
Speaker 3: Zach Wheeler's just so steady, so good, comes out and even in the game when you know somebody throws you know, his opposing starter as nineteen punchouts, he still keeps his team in the game.

00:09:40
Speaker 4: They do not.

00:09:41
Speaker 3: He does not get the w but keeps the team in it and does his job.

00:09:47
Speaker 4: Pitches what six or seven strong.

00:09:49
Speaker 3: And just really impressive as usual, getting people out pretty efficient, wasn't super super sharp.

00:09:57
Speaker 4: But still really really good.

00:09:59
Speaker 3: And and uh, I just said, I just love the way he sets the tone.

00:10:03
Speaker 4: Man.

00:10:04
Speaker 3: He remains the best starting pitcher in baseball for me, and he proves it day in and day out on the mount.

00:10:11
Speaker 5: You know, I heard some chatter that, uh, you know, those shadows in opening day they were real. I mean, I mean, that's a lot of strikeouts, but it was tough to see the ball.

00:10:22
Speaker 2: And I heard some chatter that.

00:10:25
Speaker 5: Folks were saying, well, that's excuse making, and okay, whatever, it's you know, the people saying it's excuse making by the Phillies hitters. Well, I think if you want to know that the shadows were real and really affecting hitters, read what Wheeler said that he was hustling back out to the mound every gening because he wanted to take take advantage of the shadows. So he knew, you know, he knew they were real too, and he utilized them and exploited them as well.

00:10:55
Speaker 1: Absolutely no doubt. And I want to mention this too. If you subscribe to The Philly Show on YouTube, you have a chance to win a Manco and Manco gift card. So subscribe to The Philly Show on YouTube. Underneath it in the comments section, just put down your favorite Phillies player of all time, whoever that might be. If you love Chuck Klein, put down Chuck Klein. I don't know why you would, but maybe you love Phillies history, you know what I mean?

00:11:27
Speaker 4: Right Holliday? Maybe Ryan Howard, Jase Utley, who knows?

00:11:33
Speaker 5: How about how about Rafael Kiraco?

00:11:37
Speaker 1: You know Porfy Altamurano? How about that?

00:11:41
Speaker 4: Wow?

00:11:43
Speaker 1: I just looked him up at Little Phillies Trivia question. Who wasn't he involved in a trade? Big trade? I can't remember who that was for. But Gary Matthews. I think he was in the Gary Matthews deal many many moons ago. But so yeah, go on the YouTube channel and check that out. So I wanted to update you guys a couple of things, some injury updates. So Trey Turner did not play on Sunday. He also didn't play on Saturday. Got scratched on Saturday because of back spasms. He is feeling better, but Rob Thompson said after Sunday's game that he's probably not going to play in the home opener. The idea being, of course, you have Tuesdays off day and you can give his back another day of rest. So this is something that's kind of been bothering him. It sounds like for maybe the past week. He said it crept up. His right hip kind of locked up on him about three or four days left of spring training, and so they just want to kind of make sure that that they can knock that out of there. So don't expect Trey Turner to be in the lineup and the home opener. Expect JT. Real Muto to be in the lineup on the home opener. He followed a ball off his foot Saturday night and he felt better. He could have played today, I guess in an emergency situation, but they didn't. Obviously they did not want him to play. They wanted to give Marshawn to start, no reason to rush him back. So he seems to be doing okay. Ranger Swarez threw a bullpen on Saturday in clear Water. He came out of that okay today. He felt fine today. So the next step for him is gonna be an updown bullpen session was basically means like two innings of work, So he's kind of progressing. So I wanted to give you guys some updates on that.

00:13:25
Speaker 5: So who do you expect to throw out the first pitch, the ceremonial first pitch at the home opening.

00:13:32
Speaker 2: We got your guesses.

00:13:34
Speaker 1: I have no idea who might toss out.

00:13:36
Speaker 3: I'm gonna toss out Cole Hammel's really maybe what.

00:13:41
Speaker 2: About somebody with the Eagles they did win the Super Bowl?

00:13:45
Speaker 4: Could it be BG? Could it be Jason Kelcey?

00:13:48
Speaker 2: BG would be a good one.

00:13:50
Speaker 1: That would be a good one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, that would be a good one. That absolutely would be a good one. I tell you what. A lot of Eagles chants this weekend and that's parked in. Could somebody I think it was destinyly Legardo from Phillies Nation. She grabs something off of some Reddit page from Nationals fans, and there some lady was guy was griping about how it's sickening to them that they let the Phillies fans take over Nationals Park, and if I hear another Eagles chant, I'm going to lose my mind. Something along those lines. So too bad, Yeah, too bad. Fill your own ballpark, exactly, fill your own ballpark, no doubt about it. So, hey, guys, we have another segment here. We didn't get into Hajesus Lizardo, but I wanted to talk about Hazus citizens' money moves. Okay, make sense of your money. This is where we kind of go over the money play, money, decision, money moment from the past week. And I think we think it's got to be Hazel's Tzardo. And I think the move that we're referring to is the December trade to bring Haesus Lozardo to the Phillies. They traded two prospects, Starlin Cobba, He's a top one hundred prospect by MLB pipeline, and a Marion Boyd, who's a burner outfielder. They sent them to the Marlins for Jezus Cizzardo. But guys, Hazelus Cizzarto, I know only he only went five innings, but eleven strikeouts. Yeah, second most strikeouts in the Phillies debut. Ever. We were talking about this on X Saturday Night. Guys, Rubin, you played in the game of the guy who set the record, Garrett Stevenson May thirteen, nineteen ninety seven. Garrett Stevenson strikes out twelve in his Phillies debut.

00:15:42
Speaker 4: Rubens had a serious hookwork and I was playing what centerfield and left field?

00:15:47
Speaker 1: I think that day you hit fifth, that day you knocked in a run. Jim you covered that game for the Philadelphia in choir. So, yeah, isn't that funny?

00:15:58
Speaker 2: I mean, I put Ruben his name in the newspaper.

00:16:03
Speaker 4: You made me, Jim, you made me his mom.

00:16:06
Speaker 2: His mom cut it out and put it on the fridge, no doubt.

00:16:09
Speaker 6: Hey, the funniest, the craziest part about that is that I was hitting in the five hole, protecting in the five hole, protecting Darren Dalton, who was in the four l You.

00:16:20
Speaker 3: Know, your team's not that good when I'm hitting in the five hole.

00:16:24
Speaker 1: Wow, but Lozardo, guys, I mean eleven strikeouts in five innings. Ruben, you mentioned the sweeper. He struck out five on the sweeper, which is a brand new pitch. He struck out five on his slider, which is kind of like the pitches had forever. When his great breaking ball got another on a fastball. The fastball velo was there. It was ninety six nine average on Saturday, up one point seven miles an hour from last season when he was backed up. I mean, he was bringing it. The breaking stuff was great. You know, what do we think? I mean that trade and then I kind of wrote about this on Saturday. That trade, to me, a lot of talk about the Phillies are running it back. The Phillies are running it back, and the players got asked about it a lot in the spring and they're kind of, yeah, you're kind of running it back. But I think they kind of said, nobody's really given lazarda like the props that he deserves. If he's healthy, he can be really really good and be a real big difference maker. And he kind of showed an example of that on Saturday.

00:17:26
Speaker 5: I thought no question when you when you talk about you know, UH citizens' money moved to me.

00:17:33
Speaker 2: Part of this move is.

00:17:37
Speaker 5: Heyesus Lozardo's willingness to be open minded. I mean he comes into a new situation and he puts his trust in the in the new pitch. You know, his knew, his new pitching coach Caleb Coffam and his staff and all the technology that Phillies use in UH pitch design and he's you know, added this this sweeper and like you said, he got five of eleven strikeouts on that pitch. It's just his overall and even Wheeler has had it overall willingness to listen and to work with these guys and then implement the adjustments that you know, the coaching staff is helping you with.

00:18:23
Speaker 2: They have all this technology that can you know, help.

00:18:27
Speaker 5: You with your at least point finger pressure, how it comes out and then you can make the ball do these great things that that we're seeing. So just in addition to them bringing on Lozardo him being open minded and then you know, receiving the instruction he has from the Phillies pitching people. I wouldn't I would imagine after a start like that he's got to be really excited, even more so than he was, you know, coming out of spring training.

00:18:52
Speaker 2: New team.

00:18:53
Speaker 5: He's got to be like, feel like he has a new toy and he's ready to run with it. It's gotta be excited for the season just to see how good he can be.

00:19:00
Speaker 3: There's a whole lot of things to unpack with this citizen's money move. I think that the biggest thing for me is one, you know, one is I always believe in starting pitching. You can never have enough starting pitching depth, as we've seen with Ranger Suarez going down at least in the early part of the season. And I mean, you're bringing not just a quality arm, but it seems like a quality.

00:19:25
Speaker 4: Person and someone wants to get better and better.

00:19:27
Speaker 3: As Jim states, the cool thing about this was that one he had this brand new pitch and he utilized it.

00:19:35
Speaker 4: Didn't talk about it a whole lot during the during the spring.

00:19:37
Speaker 3: I think that was sort of a they wanted to make that sort of a surprise.

00:19:40
Speaker 4: He was working on a little bit. You know, he's obviously working on it during the spring, but didn't talk about it a lot.

00:19:47
Speaker 3: But he also said afterwards that someone mentioned something about his change up, and his changeup is like a really good change up and he's had a lot of success with it, but he wasn't happy at all with it, So it was it interesting he was he It seemed like he liked his outing.

00:20:03
Speaker 4: But didn't love his outing. So he's one of those guys. For me, it's sort of like a perfectionist.

00:20:09
Speaker 2: I love the.

00:20:09
Speaker 4: Fact that he didn't feel like he did enough. I think that he feels like he can be even better.

00:20:15
Speaker 3: And when you have that kind of mentality on the mound, that's exactly what you want when you're in the front office, or you're on the staff, or you're a teammate of his. You want a guy who's searching for greatness and searching for perfection. And that's what seems to me what this guy's mentality is about. Pretty serious kid, goes about his business very professionally, and the way he handles the media, and he sort of reminds me a little bit of you know, some of the other guys on the staff with Aaron Nola and Zach Wheeler, are those guys pretty serious about their craft and wanting to be as good as it can possibly be.

00:20:56
Speaker 4: I think it was a strong movement.

00:20:57
Speaker 3: And don't rule out that other move that they made with bringing Kepler in because he's a pretty professional heater, and that's another.

00:21:03
Speaker 4: One of those good moves.

00:21:04
Speaker 3: But definitely that's the citizen's money move to talk about in Lozardo's acquisition.

00:21:12
Speaker 1: Rubin, You're right though, Like it's funny now I think about, like talking to him after the game on Saturday, he didn't seem like too ecstatic by anything. It was just kind of going through it, kind of breaking it down to us, like what was going on. Because the first time he threw in spring training, he threw two sweepers, right, and he kind of really like, he says, guys, this is not even a I think the quote was, this is not even a confirmed pitch yet, so kind of like everybody relaxed. I don't even know if I'm gonna throw this thing during the season, like I'm just kind of fiddling around with a little bit. But then obviously then he threw twenty one twenty one sweepers on Saturday night, and I remember asking him, you know, was that part of the plan to throw that many. He's like, no, it's just kind of the way the game went kind of how it was feeling coming out of the hand. But but yeah, he didn't. He didn't seem like he was just kind of business kind of breaking it down. You know, he wasn't super ecstatic with it or anything that he was like, No, this is just how it kind of went. That's how he was feeling good. So we decided to throw a lot of them.

00:22:18
Speaker 3: And it's just a great another a great new tool to have in the toolbox. And it's just like a lot of guys who have the ability to pitch. If he doesn't have a feel for that one, maybe he can go to his slider's change up the next time. If he doesn't have a feel for you know, his slider, maybe he goes to the you know, the sweep or whatever the case may be.

00:22:36
Speaker 4: But that's a nice little tool to have in the box.

00:22:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, real time adjustments what's working.

00:22:42
Speaker 5: And you know the other half of that equation in what's working is the catcher. And nobody knows better what is working than the catcher. He's you know, he gets a feel for that swing, he sees the action on the pitch, and then he keeps putting the finger down. In the old days, you put the fingers down. Now he pushes the button, but the right buttons. I missed the fingers.

00:23:10
Speaker 1: You missed the fingers?

00:23:13
Speaker 2: Well, used to always give me finger fingers.

00:23:17
Speaker 1: Give you the finger, did you?

00:23:19
Speaker 5: Yeah?

00:23:19
Speaker 2: It actually well? And I wasn't happy about his stories.

00:23:23
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, and sometimes I even got like more than that.

00:23:31
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, so Citizens money moves brought to you by Citizens. From making a plan to reaching your goals. Citizens has the personalized advice and tools to help you make sense of your money. Citizens, Official Bank of the Phillies.

00:23:49
Speaker 4: How cool is to have the citizens aboard?

00:23:52
Speaker 1: That's uh, it's fretty tough man, It's awesome.

00:23:55
Speaker 5: I've been a Citizens guy for a long time, Todd, I've been.

00:23:58
Speaker 4: Banking with the citizens for a long time.

00:24:00
Speaker 1: Jim, you got to tell this story. This is kind of funny. I mean, it's it's true and it's funny. You got to tell it.

00:24:05
Speaker 5: So Citizens, I like, they started, uh in New England and right where I grew up, near Providence. And my first little bank account, I think I had eight bucks from my first communion and I opened my first little savings account out of Citizens in Greenville, Rhode Island.

00:24:27
Speaker 2: You could look it up as they say.

00:24:29
Speaker 1: That is so I love that. I love that.

00:24:32
Speaker 3: Well, the Citizens from the beginning, you know that that was converted and bought and whatever, changed names and such, but been a Citizens guy for wow. Got to be close to our many years it's been existence here in Philly.

00:24:48
Speaker 1: Well, well, yeah, we're excited again for this live show on Thursday twelve fifteen pm at Citizen Bank Park, right next to passing Stolle. We do have a great guest lined up as.

00:24:58
Speaker 2: Well, Dunny hiss any hiss for that guest.

00:25:01
Speaker 1: I would just say it's somebody that always has something very interesting to say, always have very you know, I want to give away too much, to give way too much, But guys, this was fun. We will be back on Thursday at Citizen Bank Park. Don't forget. If you're interested like the Philly Show. Want to support us, get a Philly Show t shirt, go to the Phillies Show dot com. Gentlemen, see you at the home opener later today.

00:25:36
Speaker 2: Chris Sanchez is the game.

00:25:37
Speaker 4: I'm just curious. You're gonna be there later? Who you guys?

00:25:44
Speaker 3: Todd?

00:25:44
Speaker 4: What about you, Jimmy.

00:25:45
Speaker 2: I'm actually going to be there. I'm going to be there. I'm not working, but I'm going to be there.

00:25:50
Speaker 5: Christ Sanchez last year seven and three with a two point two one e R A and seventeen starts at Citizens Bank Parks. So I gotta think that's the reason he's pitching Game four or the home opener, because he's so good at home. So uh, it'll be a good one.

00:26:09
Speaker 2: We can't wait. Love the home opener, big.

00:26:11
Speaker 1: Flag, Yes, players come down from Ashburn. Can't Callas singing the national anthem? I love it all that stuff.

00:26:21
Speaker 4: Let's hope that. Let's hope this het weather holds up.

00:26:23
Speaker 1: Yes, please Lord keep the right away. The Philly Show again is brought to you by Citizens. Make sense of your money with Citizens, Official Bank of the Phillies. Talk to you guys later.

00:26:37
Speaker 2: Smell lady boys.

00:26:38
Speaker 4: Jim