Coming into the 2026 MLB regular season, the biggest strength for the Philadelphia Phillies was expected to be their starting rotation. Alas, that wasn’t the case out of the gate. Outside of Cristopher Sanchez, the group struggled. Inflated ERAs were held by Taijuan Walker , Aaron Nola and Jesus Luzardo, leading to the Phillies' starting rotation owning the worst earned run average in the sport at one point. Walker has since been replaced by Zack Wheeler , which has helped get the team on track. Philadelphia is still waiting on Nola to return to form, but Luzardo’s production has started to match his performance. It was fair for fans to have some concern about the talented lefty when his ERA sat at 7.94 through four starts and 22.2 innings. However, some statistics and underlying metrics hinted that he was throwing the ball much better than his numbers would indicate.…