WASHINGTON — Last week, upon finding out when and where he would make his first start for the Phillies, Jesús Luzardo cued up the last time he faced the Nationals.

“It just wasn’t me,” he said. “At all.”

Luzardo pitched that day, last June 16 for the Marlins, even though he could barely tie his shoes because of a hairline fracture in his lower spine. His fastball lacked its usual sizzle. He couldn’t cut loose his slider. A few days later, he wound up on the injured list, not to return before the end of the season.

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Healthy again, he knew things would be back to normal Saturday. But if you asked the Nationals hitters — heck, even some of Luzardo’s new teammates — after he racked up 11 strikeouts and the Phillies won a Bryson Stott– and Brandon Marsh-fueled 11-6 knee-slapper to improve to 2-0 for the first time since 2022, there was something almost as unrecognizable about the hard-throwing lefty.

Where did that sweeping slider come from?

“I was like, ‘I never saw that one,’” Stott said.

Luzardo picked up the sweeper, a trendy variant of the slider that breaks horizontally, in the offseason after getting traded to the Phillies. Pitching coach Caleb Cotham brought it up as a way of making Luzardo’s top-of-a-rotation repertoire even more formidable.

As it turns out, Luzardo is a quick study. After only a month of busting out the new slider in exhibition games, he uncorked 21 — count ‘em, 21! — from among 95 pitches, establishing it as much early (on a strikeout of James Wood, the third batter of the game) as often.

Five of Luzardo’s strikeouts came on the sweeper. Five came with his old, downward-moving slider. One came on his fastball, which scraped 98.9 mph and averaged 96.9, back to normal from the 92.9 mph average last June.

Luzardo struck out at least one batter in every inning. He whiffed the side against the top of the order in the fifth, getting CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews, and Josh Bell, all swinging, all on sliders, including Abrams on the sweeper.

In all, Luzardo tied Jim Bunning in 1964 for the second-most strikeouts in a Phillies debut. Garrett Stephenson struck out 12 against the Cardinals in 1997.

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“He’s awesome,” said Stott, who stirred the offense after the Phillies scratched Trea Turner (back spasms) and before J.T. Realmuto exited in the seventh inning after fouling a ball off his left foot. (Both are classified as “day to day,” according to the Phillies.) “He’s electric. We saw him a lot [with the Marlins]. It’s even more electric when he’s striking out 11 of a different team and not us.”

There was something different about Stott, too.

When he came to the plate in the fourth inning, the Phillies trailed 2-0 on Keibert Ruiz’s second-inning homer. Stott didn’t get a fastball in a six-pitch at-bat against Jake Irvin in the fourth inning. But instead of waiting for a heater, he fouled off a curveball and a changeup before hooking a two-strike curve inside the right-field foul pole to tie the game.

Take it from Stott. Last year, it wouldn’t have happened like that.

“I would have been thinking, he hasn’t thrown this or he hasn’t thrown that,” Stott said. “Just seeing stuff and hitting it is when I’m at my best. For sure, I would’ve been thinking about something other than just hitting the ball.”

Kyle Schwarber’s three-run homer in a five-run sixth inning broke open the game. But two other left-handed batters — Stott and Marsh — put together the Phillies’ best at-bats of the big inning.

The Nationals brought in lefty reliever Colin Poche, a strategy that teams will use to try to exploit Stott and Marsh at the bottom of the order. This time, Stott saw only fastballs, all at the top of the zone or above. He laid off the high pitches and worked a five-pitch walk with one out.

Marsh followed by lining a two-strike single to load the bases and knock Poche out of the game. The go-ahead runs scored on Edmundo Sosa’s bases-loaded walk against righty Lucas Sims and a wild pitch before Schwarber’s blast turned it into a 7-2 laugher.

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An inning later, Marsh’s three-run homer enabled the Phillies to empty the bench and bullpen before the Nationals scored three late runs. Stott reached four times (two hits, two walks) in five plate appearances; Marsh notched three hits after striking out four times on opening day.

But Luzardo was the headliner. For years, the Phillies recognized his talent from facing him with the Marlins. But his combination of high velocity and solid command stood out even more to manager Rob Thomson in spring training.

And now, the sweeper gives him another toy.

“Just another way of getting guys out,” Luzardo said. “It just fits in the game plan a little bit in different ways than I would use my normal slider. Throughout spring, we were pushing it a certain way or trying to use it in certain counts where we might find ourselves using it in season. I think it paid off heavily today.”

Healthy again, back to being himself, it gave Luzardo yet another look.