Robert Frost once claimed “Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things”. Today marked the beginning, and we can hope the ending, of a very tough interval for Jesús Luzardo. Frost also wrote that “nothing gold can stay”, and we could apply that either to Luzardo’s stellar run to begin the season or to Rhys Hoskins, making his second trip to Philadelphia in Milwaukee colors. Either way, properly capturing the odd, dispiriting events of today’s contest would require a poet.
Luzardo didn’t look quite like himself to start the game. And soon, he didn’t look like himself at all.