Lodolo keeps Reds close vs. Padres (April 18)
Like his Major League debut last week, Nick Lodolo’s second start went as a loss. But his outing during a 4-1 defeat to the Padres on Monday at Petco Park was viewed as progress for Lodolo.
The left-hander, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Reds’ No. 2 prospect, allowed three earned runs and six hits over five innings with two walks and eight strikeouts.
“I thought it was big,” said Lodolo, baseball’s No. 41 overall prospect, “especially because I thought I kept us in the game. That was my biggest part, especially after I gave up the homer.”
With a 1-0 first-inning lead, Lodolo threw back-to-back changeups to Manny Machado. The second one was slugged for a two-run homer to left field. Lodolo recovered to retire the rest of the side in order.
“I just kept going after it,” said Lodolo, who gave up five earned runs over four innings vs. Cleveland in his debut on April 13. “That’s what I told myself, ‘Start over. New ballgame. There are no outs.’ It’s easier said than done, but I thought after that I responded pretty well.”
Lodolo allowed one more run in the fourth inning on Ha-Seong Kim’s two-out RBI single.
“I thought from the very beginning, he was really excellent,” Reds manager David Bell said. “Great fastball. He didn’t throw his slider a lot, had a good changeup.
I think it was back-to-back changeups to Machado just a great hitter and that’s going to happen. Other than that, he was really good tonight. I thought it was a big step in his development. Especially after last time not going exactly how he wanted, I thought he was much better tonight.”