Is he risen?: Phillies 6, White Sox 3

The mercurial lefty rebounds on the road

After a surprising loss against the junior circuit bottom feeders last night, the Philadelphia Phillies (61-46) got back to business with a 6-3 victory against the Chicago White Sox (39-69) to climb within a game of the wild card lead as August approaches.

Jesus Luzardo has endured a rough up-and-down stretch since the end of May after a tremendous start to his Phillies’ career, but we got the “up” version tonight.

The first inning began forebodingly enough for Luzardo, after a throwing error by Otto Kemp put the lead-off runner aboard. A single and a walk loaded the bases but Brandon Marsh bailed his pitcher out by recording all three outs in athletic fashion.

Luzardo would allow only one hit and another runner to reach via his own error the rest of the way, en route to seven scoreless innings.

Phillies opened the scoring in the top of the second with a a Nick Castellanos walk and a Marsh double to start the frame followed by sacrifice flies by Max Kepler and Otto Kemp to make it 2-0.

They would triple the lead in the next inning with a pair of two-run homers by Kyle Schwarber and Marsh.

Jordan Romano pitched a spotless eighth in relief of Luzardo before Daniel Robert allowed a couple garbage-time singles and a two-run home run by Lenyn Sosa to make the final score prettier for the hosts.

The series decider is tomorrow afternoon as Taijuan Walker takes on Adrian Houser.