CINCINNATI -- Whether he pitched well or not last month, one thing Nick Lodolo certainly didn't have was good fortune in June. It was a winless month and the Reds lost all five of the games where Lodolo was the starting pitcher.
On Sunday, Lodolo pitched strong for five innings and overcame trouble in the sixth. And his good work was rewarded by Spencer Steer's two-run home run for a 3-2 Cincinnati victory over the Orioles that salvaged the final game of the three-game series.
Lodolo pitched six innings and allowed one earned run, six hits and two walks with four strikeouts. In June, he was 0-1 with a 4.88 ERA.
For four innings, Orioles starting pitcher Kyle Bradish had 12 up, 12 down vs. the Reds, but his perfection ended with Eugenio Suárez drawing a leadoff walk in the fifth inning. Next came Steer, who lifted a 3-2 slider to the opposite field for a home run over the right-field fence and a 2-0 lead.
Lodolo carried a shutout into the top of the sixth but ran into trouble and a 28-pitch inning. Taylor Ward hit a one-out double to the gap in left-center field and Coby Mayo hit a two-out single that zinged past third baseman Sal Stewart to score Ward, ending Lodolo's streak of 14 scoreless innings over three starts.
Tension mounted when Lodolo issued back-to-back walks to load the bases but he struck out Jeremiah Jackson with a curveball to escape. The bullpen kept the lead intact with Brock Burke working a perfect seventh inning and Tejay Antone doing likewise in the eighth.
Bradish was still pitching into the eighth inning when the Reds notched an insurance run. Edwin Arroyo hit a one-out single to center field and scored on Stewart's two-out double down the left field line.
That extra run proved crucial when Emilio Pagán labored in the ninth for Cincinnati, and had the bases loaded with one out and allowed Gunnar Henderson's sacrifice fly. Pagán still earned his seventh save, his first since returning June 30 after missing two months on the injured list.