PHILADELPHIA -- A lot went right for Nick Lodolo in June and for much of Saturday afternoon vs. the Phillies, it appeared that the Reds' lefty starter was well situated to keep the good times rolling.
Lodolo struck out Bryce Harper three times. He struck out the side in the second inning and eight batters overall in six innings. His offspeed pitches were on point.
“Oh my goodness, I thought his stuff -- his changeup was probably the best we’ve seen all year," manager Terry Francona exclaimed.
Yet it was the one pitch that missed -- a fastball to Alec Bohm in the sixth inning -- that led to the go-ahead runs that had Lodolo lamenting a 5-1 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, evening the three-game series.
“I felt like I was moving the ball around well," said Lodolo, who allowed three earned runs with four hits and two walks. "I’m getting to my spots. Good misses in good spots when I was missing too. Overall, I thought I threw it well. Just that one [cost] big.”
In 18 starts, Lodolo is 5-5 with a 3.58 ERA and he is tied with Nick Martinez with 100 2/3 innings for the team lead. Saturday's outing also gave him a team-leading 10 quality starts on the season, the first time he's done it and the first Reds lefty to do that since Wade Miley in 2021.
In June, the Reds won four of the five games Lodolo started, and over his three previous starts, he was 1-0 with a 2.30 ERA with four runs allowed over 15 2/3 innings.
With one strike on Kyle Schwarber leading off the sixth inning of a 1-1 game, Lodolo threw four-straight balls to walk the slugger. Two batters later against Bohm, an 0-1 fastball was left over the middle of the plate.
Bohm demolished it for a two-run homer to left-center field and a 3-1 Phillies lead. As the ball landed in the seats, Lodolo could only put his hands on his knees while watching before kicking a little dirt in frustration.
“It was one of the few pitches I didn’t execute. He made me pay for it," said Lodolo, who has a team-leading 15 homers allowed. “I was just trying to get the ball up. Obviously, I didn’t get it up.”
Lodolo opened by retiring 12 of his first 14 batters, including during a seven-pitch fourth inning. Will Benson's leadoff homer to right field against Phillies starter Ranger Suárez gave the Reds a 1-0 lead. But with one out in the bottom of the fifth, Edmundo Sosa attacked a first-pitch sinker on the outer portion of the plate for an opposite-field homer to right.
“He put a good swing on it to go backside for a homer. It was pretty impressive. A good swing by him," Lodolo said.
When it came to his changeup, Lodolo threw it 24 times out of his 85 pitches. He got 18 swings and eight misses, according to Statcast's pitch tracker. The curveball, thrown 19 times, garnered 12 swings and seven whiffs.
“It was definitely better than it had been," Lodolo said of his offspeed pitches. "I don’t know, maybe I should have went to some of that. If I get that ball to the spot [against Bohm], it would be different.”