Phillies begin Don Mattingly Era with ‘better baseball’ and a win

Late Tuesday afternoon, Don Mattingly took a seat in the dugout and held his first pre-game chat with reporters as Phillies manager.

“Our season basically starts with this game,” he said.

So, look at it this way:

The Phillies are 1-0.

Actually, they are 10-19, but at least they took a step in the right direction in their first game under Mattingly. The bats came alive and Jesus Luzardo pitched a beauty in a 7-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Citizens Bank Park.

It was just the Phillies’ second win since April 13.

Mattingly took over as manager earlier in the day, replacing Rob Thomson, who was fired after the team’s slow start, which included a 10-game losing streak that ended Saturday.

“We need to play better baseball,” Mattingly said before the game. He cited pitching, offense and defense.

The Phillies, indeed, did that.

Luzardo, who had struggled in four of his previous five starts this season, set the tone with seven innings of shutout, walk-free ball. He allowed just two hits, struck out eight and walked none.

Offensively, the Phillies were led by Trea Turner, who had four hits, and Bryce Harper, Adolis Garcia and Alec Bohm, all of whom stroked run-scoring doubles in a four-run fifth inning.

After Luzardo departed, the Phils got two innings of shutout work from relievers Orion Kerkering and Tim Mayza.

For the night, Phillies pitchers struck out 12 and walked none.

At the plate, the Phils were 5 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

In the field, they made zero errors.

Better baseball, indeed.