Luzardo a man of vision

MESA, Ariz. — There’s a different look to Jesús Luzardo this spring. The lefthander isn’t wearing his signature glasses on the mound in Cactus League starts. He said he has switched to contacts after testdriving them in live batting practice sessions last summer.

“It was definitely weird at the beginning,” Luzardo said. “But now it’s just so much easier not having to worry about (the glasses), in case they fog up or whatever it is. I’d much rather pitch without them now.”

Otherwise, Luzardo cut a figure in his outing Monday the A’s hope to see often this season. He pitched into the fifth inning for the first time this spring, allowing no runs and three hits to the Diamondbacks in a 44, nineinning tie. He walked one and struck out three. He will have one more spring start, possibly in a simulated game, but said he feels seasonready.

“My arm feels good,” Luzardo said. “Today not all my pitches were working, but when I’m able to work around that and get outs without those pitches, I think that means I’m ready to go.”

Luzardo’s previous outing also came against Arizona, which tagged him for six thirdinning runs. He said he threw a lot of breaking balls in that outing and focused more Monday on his fastball — “making it a weapon,” he said — and changeup. Pitching into the fifth inning was “huge” as he builds for a full year.

“It looked like he had good command of his fastball, elevated a little bit more than we’ve seen in the past today,” manager

Bob Melvin said. “Got his pitch count where we wanted and that’s the most important thing.”

⏩ A.J. Puk also pitched and allowed three runs in 12⁄3 innings. All three scored in the sixth when two popups to right fell for hits and A’s center fielder Mark Canha lost a drive to the wall in the sun. Puk also walked two, hit a batter and had a run score on a wild pitch.

“Only his second time out, but needs to command it a little bit better,” Melvin said. “As far as velocity goes, it is what it is. We’ll see if that ticks up a little. But the most concerning thing for me today was at times missing by a large margin.”

Puk touched 95 mph but was mostly at 9293 with his fastball. Melvin said Puk’s pitching in relief Monday was more about keeping him on a regular schedule than preparing him for a specific role.

⏩ Rule 5 outfielder Ka’ai Tom, who was in right field for the popup hits, also hit a tworun triple. “He’s trying to stick on a bigleague team, and so far, he’s doing a pretty nice job with it,” Melvin said.

⏩ Jed Lowrie started a nifty 453 double play with the A’s in a shift and will start at second base again Tuesday. “I didn’t think I’d be running him out there as much as I am,” Melvin said. “Defensively he’s probably — I don’t want to say a surprise, but he looks like he did last time he was here.”