Lodolo continues build-up process with five scoreless frames against Miami

CINCINNATI -- When you’re an MLB starting pitcher, there’s a fine line between overexerting and giving everything you have on a hot and humid day, especially when you’re building your arm back to full strength.

That’s what Nick Lodolo and the Reds were up against Sunday afternoon in a 7-1 loss to the Marlins at Great American Ball Park.

The lefty tossed five strong innings on just 73 pitches before leaving a scoreless game. With a gametime temperature of 87, Lodolo did manage to find his rhythm on a hot and humid day.

Lodolo retired the final eight batters he faced, and 11 of his last 12. He allowed just three hits, struck out two and walked two and threw 44 strikes. In his second start back from the blister issue on his left index finger, Lodolo had to work through traffic on the bases in the first two innings.

Otto Lopez opened with a base hit on Lodolo’s fourth pitch. Lodolo then induced a 6-4-3 double play from Heriberto Hernández. After a single by Agustín Ramírez and a walk to Xavier Edwards, Javier Sanoja grounded to third.

Esteury Ruiz singled with one out in the second and Hernández walked with one out in the third. That was it in terms of baserunners. He retired the side in order in the fourth and fifth before his day was done.

With the Reds facing a doubleheader on Monday to begin a five-game series with National League Central rival St. Louis, Lodolo said he would have loved to go back out there but didn’t feel it was worth pushing past his “build up” limit of 75 or 80 pitches.

“I would like to go six innings, especially with what we have ahead [Monday],” Lodolo said. “But I understand it, it's a process, and I'm building up.

“I was definitely fatigued,” Lodolo said. “But yeah, would I have liked to pitch six innings? Yeah, that was the thing. I only had, I think, two more pitches to work with, anyways. I think I had a cap at 75 or 80.”

“When a pitcher says, ‘I've had it,’ I'll never send them back out,” manager Terry Francona said.

But Lodolo stressed that fatigue wasn’t the reason he took himself out.

“I think it's just part of building up,” Lodolo said.

Tyler Stephenson celebrated his 30th birthday by pinch-hitting for Ke’Bryan Hayes and driving reliever Michael Peterson’s first pitch of the bottom of the eighth to the center-field seats for his 12th home run. It marked his seventh pinch-hit homer, good for third most in Reds history behind Jerry Lynch (13) and Chris Heisey (10).

The home run cut Miami’s lead to 2-1, but the Reds came up short in the ninth and lost their third series since the All-Star break.

Before the Marlins blew open the game with a five-run ninth, the costliest play appeared to be a routine grounder that Ramírez hit to Elly De La Cruz at short. De La Cruz threw high to Sal Stewart at first, drawing him off the bag and opening the door for a critical unearned insurance run off reliever Tejay Antone, who took the loss for a second straight day. Before Saturday, Antone hadn’t lost a game since Sept. 2020.