Photo: Redleg Nation Staff
Nick Lodolo made his second rehab start in his attempt to return from a blister issue that has been a problem for him since his final start in spring training. The Cincinnati Reds left-handed starter was in Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday evening with the Triple-A Louisville Bats as they took on the Storm Chasers. Lodolo, who threw 51 pitches in his previous rehab start with the High-A Dayton Dragons, upped that to 79 pitches this time around.
For the most part the results were good. Lodolo threw 4.1 innings of 2-run baseball. The second of those runs came around to score after he had turned the game over to the bullpen. That final hit he allowed was a 1-out double on his 7th pitch of the 5th inning. The lefty had two walks, gave up five hits, and he had six strikeouts while throwing 45 strikes in the game.
Nick Lodolo’s blister issue seemed to be related to his slider. While working his way back, but before he went on his rehab assignment last weekend with Dayton, he was pitching on the side but was not throwing his slider. During his start with the Dragons he threw a limited number of sliders. Saturday night saw him throw plenty of them. 21% of his pitches on the night were sliders. Omaha swung at eight of them and of those eight they swung and missed four of them. He only had one other swinging strike and it came on a 2-seam fastball.
With Lodolo pushing his pitch count up to 79 on the day if he’s healthy it seems likely that he would return to the Reds rather than make another rehab start. That was probably true before Brandon Williamson landed on the 15-day injured list with shoulder fatigue, but it feels even more likely now that he has the Cincinnati will need another starter. The team is going to have to have someone make a start for Williamson on Monday, but after that Lodolo could slide into the rotation and take over that spot.
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