If pitching is to carry this team, it’s starting to show it’s tow capacity.
Cincinnati Reds lefty Nick Lodolo served up a solo dinger to Jurickson Profar in the first PA of San Diego’s night on Monday. From that point forward, though, Lodolo made mincemeat of the otherwise star-studded Padres offense, once again showing that the Reds have an arsenal of incredibly talented starting pitchers who appear to be putting things together.
Lodolo fanned 11 and retired 18 batters in a row before exiting after 7.0 IP, marking the third time in his 4 starts this year in which he’s gone at least 5.2 IP and allowed a lone earned run (or fewer). He looks healthy, he looks like he’s carrying zero rust after a lost 2023 season, and he looks like a more seasoned version of the guy who burst onto the national scene as a rookie with his impressive 2022 campaign.
All told, it’s helped lead the Reds starting rotation up the FanGraphs charts. As of this morning, they check in as having been worth 2.9 fWAR on the season, the fifth best of all MLB starting units to date. It’s a run that coincided with Hunter Greene spinning the ball as well as he has all season, and it’s all come as Frankie Montas - the biggest free agent signing for the Reds rotation this offseason - has been sidelined after taking a comebacker off his throwing arm.
Pair that with the return to health of lefty Brandon Williamson - who is slated to begin a rehab stint with AAA Louisville next week - and the unit not only looks to be ‘talented on paper,’ but developing both a pattern of success with depth behind it, too.
That may need to be what carries this Reds club for the time being, too. We talked briefly yesterday about the team’s offensive struggles (aside from the inimitable Elly De La Cruz) as they fight through ramptant illness in the locker room and the injuries to TJ Friedl, Matt McLain, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, and Tyler Stephenson alongside the suspension of Noelvi Marte. If they are going to struggle to put runs on the board in consistent fashion, well, it’s up to the arms on the roster to help keep them in the game long enough to break out.
As of late, that seems to be of no issue. And more and more, it looks like each time Nick Lodolo takes the mound the Reds have one of the best young pitchers in baseball wearing their jersey.
